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 term in workplace when El Salvador holds its common elections on Sunday.
An estimated 69.9 percent 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 floor, his base seems unwaveringly loyal to him even when he implements insurance policies that negatively impression numerous individuals,” mentioned Rafael Paz Narvaez, a professor from the College of El Salvador.
Nonetheless, regardless of Bukele’s strong base of assist, some observers query how lengthy voters will again his strongman approach, notably as an increasing number of individuals really feel its sting.
Underneath Bukele, El Salvador has one of many highest incarceration rates 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 major concern
That argument has confirmed compelling for a lot of Salvadorans, who’ve struggled with many years 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 look at the each day efficiency of road dancers within the Libertad Plaza, a part of downtown San Salvador.
“This sq. was once abandoned due to how harmful it was once, however now hundreds of individuals come to take pleasure in life,” Guzmán informed 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 assist for Bukele.
When requested in regards to the accusations of human rights abuses below Bukele, Gúzman was fast to dismiss the stories.
“It doesn’t matter in the event that they need to write adverse issues in regards to the president,” he mentioned of Bukele’s critics, amongst them non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
“I’ve walked by the harmful communities, and till these NGOs stroll by these streets, they gained’t perceive that this isn’t what they’re calling human rights violations.”
He emphasised that life had improved since Bukele took workplace in 2019. “The federal government is lastly 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 correct 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 had been aimed toward shoring up El Salvador’s struggling economic system: Underneath Bukele, for example, the nation began to simply accept the cryptocurrency Bitcoin as authorized tender.
However his signature difficulty 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, based on authorities figures. Bukele’s administration additionally opened final yr 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 occasion — authorized a sequence of judicial reforms final July that gave prosecutors the power to conduct mass trials.
Underneath the reforms, as much as 900 individuals could possibly be tried directly, limiting their means 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 occasion members.
To take care of his occasion’s maintain over the legislature, Bukele has narrated radio ads, warning: “If we lose one Congress member, the opposition will let all gang members free.”
Different occasion officers have echoed related themes, taking part in on fears that the nation may return to the excessive charges of crime it noticed earlier than.
For example, Christian Guevara, the top of the New Concepts caucus in Congress, posted on social media, “The opposition has already mentioned it will open the jail doorways and let [suspected criminals] free.”
Narvaez, nevertheless, mentioned that Bukele’s recognition is buoyed partly by a robust authorities communications strategy, 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 persons are grateful to not must pay extortion any extra. They’re grateful to have the ability to roam across the metropolis with peace, however this can be a feeling that has been constructed by the utilization of public funds for Bukele’s propaganda machine,” Narvaez defined.
“So long as undemocratic actions could be justified as bolstering Bukele’s rigorously crafted picture, they may proceed to be utilized, not solely with no vital backlash from the opposite state powers however 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 army have opened the door to civil liberty violations.
As of January, the organisation Humanitarian Authorized Support has filed greater than 1,700 habeas corpus petitions to El Salvador’s Supreme Court docket on behalf of people that have allegedly been wrongfully detained.
Among the relatives of those 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 in regards to the change in management.
“Politicians had been working just for the individuals in energy,” Arevalo mentioned of earlier administrations. “We needed to provide him [Bukele] a shot as a result of he mentioned he was totally 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 skin world.
Arevalo has due to this fact been unable to determine his son’s wellbeing. The expertise has left him feeling betrayed by the Bukele administration.
“Now he has turned in opposition to us for no motive,” Arevalo mentioned of Bukele. “The president was alleged to go after all of the gang members. That’s what he promised, however he went off the rails and now could be going after harmless households.”
Arevalo solely makes the minimal wage: about $243 {dollars} a month. However, he spends $100 every month to ship a meals bundle to the penitentiary the place his son is imprisoned, three hours from his dwelling 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 struggle in opposition to gangs. It is a struggle in opposition to poor individuals,” Arevalo mentioned. He hopes to have his son let loose, though he fears his youngster may 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 is going to solidify his focus of energy and pave the best way for additional erosion of the rule of regulation,” he mentioned.
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 federal government has this concept of whipping human rights from this nation,” he mentioned. “We all know that we and our households have rights, and we’re going to proceed preventing for them.”
