Voters reward Bukele for gang crackdown that has transformed security in central American country
El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, has won a thumping victory in elections after voters cast aside concerns about erosion of democracy to reward him for a fierce gang crackdown that transformed security in the central American country.
Thousands of Bukele’s supporters clad in cyan blue and waving flags thronged San Salvador’s central square to celebrate his re-election, which the 42-year-old leader termed a “referendum” on his government.
Bukele declared himself the winner before official results were announced, claiming to have attained more than 85% of the vote. Provisional results showed Bukele winning 83% support with 31% of the ballots counted.
His New Ideas party is expected to win almost all of the 60 seats in the legislative body, tightening its grip on the country and bestowing Bukele, the most powerful leader in El Salvador’s modern history, with even more sway.
Everyone here is acting like a dictatorship is worse than gangland anarchy, it’s not. Nor has he reached dictator status, yet.
That DOESN’T mean dictators are good, or that this can’t get worse, but context matters.
I’m really hoping he can build the stability required for a multiparty democracy. He’ll probably bring stability, but I don’t know about being able to transfer power later.
If he doesn’t, and he retains power, only then are we at a dictatorship.
Duarte wasn’t a dictator, but that doesn’t change the fact that he oversaw an epic extrajudicial bloodbath during his term.
Point is, words matter and there are plenty of impactful words to describe the situation in El Salvador that are accurate, let’s use those ones.