San Salvador, El Salvador – He suspended civil liberties. Led a mass incarceration effort. And provoked worldwide criticism for human rights violations.
However 5 years after he was first elected, President Nayib Bukele seems on observe to safe a second time period in workplace when El Salvador holds its common elections on Sunday.
An estimated 69.9 % of voters approve of his reelection bid, regardless of questions on its constitutionality: Earlier than Bukele, presidents in El Salvador had traditionally been restricted to 1 time period.
Bukele himself has embraced the condemnation he faces, labelling himself “the world’s coolest dictator”.
“On the surface, his base appears unwaveringly loyal to him even if he implements policies that negatively impact a large number of people,” stated Rafael Paz Narvaez, a professor from the College of El Salvador.
Nonetheless, regardless of Bukele’s strong base of help, some observers query how lengthy voters will again his strongman method, significantly as increasingly individuals really feel its sting.
Below Bukele, El Salvador has one of many highest incarceration charges on this planet, with an estimated 2 % of its grownup inhabitants behind bars.
The nation as soon as had one of many highest murder charges too: In 2015, there have been 105 murders for each 100,000 residents, a towering sum.
However Bukele has credited his “mano dura” or “iron fist” techniques for inflicting that quantity to tumble to only 7.8 homicides out of each 100,000 individuals — the bottom in Central America.
Safety a main concern
That argument has confirmed compelling for a lot of Salvadorans, who’ve struggled with a long time of widespread gang violence.
Douglas Guzmán, 35, counts himself amongst Bukele’s ardent supporters. Sporting a baseball cap emblazoned with the slogan “Bukele 2024-2029”, he just lately joined dozens of individuals to observe the day by day efficiency of avenue dancers within the Libertad Plaza, a part of downtown San Salvador.
“This square used to be deserted because of how dangerous it used to be, but now thousands of people come to enjoy life,” Guzmán advised Al Jazeera.
Gúzman arrived on the plaza with a selfie stick: He’s a part of a web based neighborhood of content material creators who use social media platforms like TikTok to evangelise their help for Bukele.
When requested concerning the accusations of human rights abuses below Bukele, Gúzman was fast to dismiss the experiences.
“It doesn’t matter if they want to write negative things about the president,” he stated of Bukele’s critics, amongst them non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
“I’ve walked through the dangerous communities, and until those NGOs walk through those streets, they won’t understand that this isn’t what they’re calling human rights violations.”
He emphasised that life had improved since Bukele took workplace in 2019. “The government is finally valuing human life. Bukele is saving the lives of Salvadorans.”
An ongoing state of emergency
Bukele’s ascent to the presidency marked a shift in Salvadoran politics. Solely 37 years previous on the time of his first presidential marketing campaign, Bukele positioned himself as a political outsider, opposed by main events on the precise and left.
His inauguration 5 years in the past made him the youngest president in Latin America, and he proceeded to make good on his ambitions of shaking up the established order.
A few of his insurance policies have been aimed toward shoring up El Salvador’s struggling financial system: Below Bukele, as an example, the nation began to just accept the cryptocurrency Bitcoin as authorized tender.
However his signature situation has been his crackdown on crime. In 2022, Bukele declared an ongoing state of emergency to stamp out gang violence.
The designation curtailed sure rights — together with the rights to due course of and public gatherings — and expanded the federal government’s authority to surveil, arrest and prosecute suspected gang members.
An estimated 75,163 individuals have been arrested since then, in accordance with authorities figures. Bukele’s administration additionally opened final 12 months a brand new mega-prison, designed to accommodate 40,000 individuals.
Along with the state of emergency, El Salvador’s legislative meeting — managed by Bukele’s New Concepts celebration — authorized a sequence of judicial reforms final July that gave prosecutors the flexibility to conduct mass trials.
Below the reforms, as much as 900 individuals might be tried without delay, limiting their capability to show their innocence. That tough-on-crime method has shaped the centrepiece for Bukele’s reelection marketing campaign, in addition to these of his fellow celebration members.
To keep up his celebration’s maintain over the legislature, Bukele has narrated radio commercials, warning: “If we lose one Congress member, the opposition will let all gang members free.”
Different celebration officers have echoed related themes, taking part in on fears that the nation might return to the excessive charges of crime it noticed earlier than.
As an illustration, Christian Guevara, the top of the New Concepts caucus in Congress, posted on social media, “The opposition has already said it would open the prison doors and let [suspected criminals] free.”
Narvaez, nevertheless, stated that Bukele’s reputation is buoyed partially by a robust authorities communications technique, one which has closely invested state-run information sources and social media.
Bukele himself is famend for his media savvy: On the social media platform X alone, he has greater than 5.8 million followers.
“The Salvadoran people are grateful to not have to pay extortion any more. They’re grateful to be able to roam around the city with peace, but this is a feeling that has been constructed through the usage of public funds for Bukele’s propaganda machine,” Narvaez defined.
“As long as undemocratic actions can be justified as bolstering Bukele’s carefully crafted image, they will continue to be applied, not only with no significant backlash from the other state powers but with their compliance.”
Opponents say Bukele ‘went off the rails’
Whereas Bukele’s authorities maintains his “mano dura” measures are essential to confront excessive charges of gang violence, critics argue the powers granted to the police and navy have opened the door to civil liberty violations.
As of January, the organisation Humanitarian Authorized Help has filed greater than 1,700 habeas corpus petitions to El Salvador’s Supreme Courtroom on behalf of people that have allegedly been wrongfully detained.
A number of the family of these unjustly imprisoned have shaped the Motion of Victims of the State of Emergency (MOVIR). Collectively, they advocate for accountability and authorized redress for the human rights violations perpetrated below the state of emergency.
Santos Arevalo, a 53-year-old agricultural employee and member of MOVIR, was once an avid supporter of Bukele. He was one of many 1.4 million Salvadorans who voted him into workplace in 2019. And at first, he was optimistic concerning the change in management.
“Politicians were working only for the people in power,” Arevalo stated of earlier administrations. “We wanted to give him [Bukele] a shot because he said he was different.”
However then, Arevalo’s son was accused of being a gang member and arrested. To this point, he has spent greater than 9 months awaiting trial in jail, the place he’s allowed no entry to the surface world.
Arevalo has subsequently been unable to establish his son’s wellbeing. The expertise has left him feeling betrayed by the Bukele administration.
“Now he has turned against us for no reason,” Arevalo stated of Bukele. “The president was supposed to go after all the gang members. That’s what he promised, but he went off the rails and now is going after innocent families.”
Arevalo solely makes the minimal wage: about $243 {dollars} a month. Nonetheless, he spends $100 every month to ship a meals bundle to the penitentiary the place his son is imprisoned, three hours from his house within the japanese division of Ahuachapán.
Since he’s unable to achieve his son, Arevalo by no means is aware of if the care packages attain him.
“This isn’t a war against gangs. This is a war against poor people,” Arevalo stated. He hopes to have his son let loose, though he fears his baby might face a mass trial, the place he could be lumped in with gang members.
For specialists like Narvaez, a Bukele victory in Sunday’s election would sign a continued backslide away from democracy.
“If President Bukele scores a reelection, it will solidify his concentration of power and pave the way for further erosion of the rule of law,” he stated.
However for Arevalo, the upcoming vote is private. He plans to face up in opposition to Bukele’s state of emergency for so long as it takes.
“The government has this idea of whipping human rights from this country,” he stated. “We know that we and our families have rights, and we are going to continue fighting for them.”