Ricardo Prada Vásquez, a 32-year-old Venezuelan immigrant legally residing in the United States, has apparently been disappeared to El Salvador’s notorious Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT) after mistakenly turning onto the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit, Michigan.
The bridge, one of North America’s busiest international crossings, links Detroit with Windsor, Ontario. Due to the complexity of nearby highways, even local residents occasionally take the wrong ramp. For Prada, this innocent mistake led to arrest, imprisonment, and deportation—culminating in his disappearance into a foreign prison.
The word is “kidnapped.” Not vanished, not disappeared. Kidnapped.
Language matters. Stop reporting falsities via soft language.
Disappeared (desaparecido) is a historical term that likens the trump administration to latin american military dictatorships
Don’t even let his family name live on. That’s that be wants
Just treat him like a number and call him 45
Thanks, didn’t know that!
I could be extra sensitive to perceived soft language these days, so I appreciate the context.
This is not the first time I read this sentiment, but kidnapping sounds softer to me than disappearing someone.
Kidnapping usually has a ulterior purpose and therefore the implication there’s conditions for return. Like money. Kidnapping is rarely itself the point.
That’s not the case here with government shipping people off to some foreign concentration camp, never to be seen again.
Kidnapping implies isolated incidents and criminals working outside the government. Disappearing points out that the government is responsible, it’s harsher language
Yes, criminals kidnap.
Governments black bag/disappear people.
Disappearing a person has far more darker undertones, too. kidnapping, at least theres a chance there might be a ransom.
Disappeared has specific connotations for those that grew up with dictators kidnapping opposition figures. I suspect the choice is intentional as it recalls a lot of South American despots.
Yes, language matters and they used it correctly here. As an intransitive verb it means that someone is not detectable. As a transitive verb it means that someone else made them disappear, which usually refers to being abducted, usually by an official group like an arm of the government.
It has been used that way for decades to indicate when a governement kidnaps citizens to detain or kill them in secret.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disappear
Since you’re bringing up language points, I’m wondering if you’d be willing to take a left turn with me.
What are your thoughts about applying the phrase “extraordinary rendition” to their situation?
I feel that it’s appropriate, but I haven’t seen anyone using it.
amnesty international has accused the us government of extraordinary rendition for decades, basically since 2001. this is even worse
I think this is disappear as a transitive verb, like it’s saying he was disappeared by the US government. It’s not soft language.
“trafficked” is the word we’re looking for here
“Disappeared” is the word typically used when authoritarian regimes arrest and incarcerate (or worse) people extrajudicially, without due process. “Trafficked” doesn’t have the authoritarian government connotation.
No, disappeared means no one outside the government knows where they are.
Trafficked is a catchall term used by the government to justify abuses, same as terrorism. They like to accuse Abrego Garcia of “human trafficking,” which conjures images of evil men smuggling frightened young women into forced prostitution, when in reality, Garcia’s “human trafficking” accusation stems from being pulled over while driving a van of men to a construction site for work.
In the old days, the goverment used to frighten citizens with warnings about “white slavery.” They just updated the phrase, but the meaning and its intent are the same.
We can split hairs on terminology, but human trafficking for the purpose of slave labor is what this administration is actively engaging in. I don’t care if the government coined it as a “catch-all” term to justify abuses of terrorism when that’s exactly what crimes they are committing
One of the main problems the Dems have had over the last 30-40 years is that they let the Conservative Propaganda Machine frame ALL political messaging in this country, and they’ve gone along with it 100%, and definitions are a major part of it.
For instane, the accepted party definitions are that Republicans are the party of smaller government, lower taxes, fiscal responsibility, family values (even if they are the opposite of all that), and Dems are just the “Tax & Spend” party, and I never hear Dems deny it. There have been a million other examples.
It’s finally starting to change, now that things are so obvious. With President Skum throwing up celebratory Nazi gang signs on national TV, its kind of hard to deny being called Nazis. Actually, they kind of like it because they respect the Nazis, and it instills a visceral fear in most people.
We need to keep taking back the messaging. Tariffs should be called taxes because many people dont understand tariffs, especially since the Conservative Propaganda Machine is deliberately muddying the definitions to confuse their morons. But they also spent decades making their morons despise every tax for any reason, and they have a very deep hatred toward taxes. The MAGA Morons are very clear on their hatred for taxes of ANY kind. Dems should tap into that deep set hatred, and turn it against MAGA. Tariffs should be referred to as Trade Taxes.
MAGA is another big one. There is no Republican Party anymore. There are only two parties - Democrats and MAGA. The Republican party is a 3rd party, at best, if they even exist at all. All Democratic politicians should just refer to the MAGA Party, the same way they like to call it the Democrat Party. Make them defend their very name and identity. Force them to differentiate between the two. It will make them sound weak and defensive. Relegate the word Republican to the political dumpster, and when MAGA finally crashes like all fascist goverments eventually do, they will be forced to dig the Republican party out of the dumpster and try to clean it up and revive it, but the stains will never fade.
90% of politics is marketing, and the Dems have to actively control their marketing by taking back the definitions and messaging. Dont use their terms, force them to use ours, or defend themselves.
Yes traffic is the word because El Salvador is making money off each prisoner we send.
you need to disappear your attitude when talking to people on YOUR SIDE
This is World Socialist Web Site. From what I’ve seen posted from them here, they are not interested in using accurate language. They are advocating for a political philosophy that many here agree with on the surface.
However, check out their obituary of Nanda Wickremesinghe if you want to try to wrap your head around the correct brand of socialism that they support. They seem more narrow than Emo Phillips in defining who is on their team and who is the anti-revolutionary betrayer. If you want to understand why the bloc the US relies on to vote against fascism can’t rally around one party or leader, look no further.
For a drinking game, take a sip every tme “comrade” appears in that article.
tl;dr they’re Trots. Trotsky central, in fact, I mean how nostalgic do you have to be to call yourself the “International Committee of the Fourth International” in currentyear while having like, what, 2k members world-wide.
…of course, every Trot org is Trotsky central they’re the absolute champions of splintering. Germany has at least three different Trot parties each accusing the others of being Stalinist, all are cults, and all are irrelevant. Best to just ignore them.
Ah but you see? Kidnapping is only when a criminal does it, and to be a criminal, you must be below the law. But when you are the law? Things are different.
Sigh… I wish I was joking…
Say it louder my friend