In an election being watched closely in Ecuador, El Salvador’s Bukele is poised for a landslide win

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, who has described himself as the “World’s Coolest Dictator,” has in less than five years transformed El Salvador from a country infamous for its record on murder and gangs to a nation with one of the lowest homicide rates in the Americas.

El Salvador President Bukele

That record means he is all but certain to be re-elected in a presidential election on Sunday for another five-year term — despite a constitutional bar on immediate re-election, voter worries about the economy, and criticism of his draconian crackdown on civil and human rights.

Under him, more than 2% of the adult population of the Central American country is behind bars and several constitutional rights have been shelved, prompting critics to call him a modern-day autocrat.

But Salvadorans weary of years of gang violence can live in ways unimaginable before.

Once barred from going to neighborhoods controlled by rival gangs, residents can now freely move around. They can open businesses without paying crushing extortion fees. They can play with their children or sit with friends outside past sunset.

They may be torn over the erosion of civil liberties, but many say they will still support Bukele.

“Why switch leaders? To go back to the same? We’re happy without the gangs and he needs power to keep making change,” said Elmer Martinez, a 53-year-old construction worker in the capital, San Salvador.

Under Bukele, security forces can now arrest anyone without a warrant on evidence as flimsy as an anonymous tip, the government has unfettered access to private communications, and detainees can be held without charge.

Rights groups have denounced the arbitrary arrests of innocent people, torture, and deaths of prisoners in custody.

“They can take anyone at any time and do whatever they want,” said Laura, a teacher who declined to give her last name for fear of reprisal. “This isn’t democracy.”

Still, she said she planned to vote for Bukele, adding that for her there were “no good options.”

A poll this month from the University of Central America’s public opinion institute showed 82% of voters supporting Bukele.

At just 4% in polls, the next closest candidate is Manuel “Chino” Flores for the legacy left-wing Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), which ran the country for 10 years prior to Bukele.

With approval ratings that any sitting president would envy, Bukele has become an inspiration for hard-line crackdowns on crime elsewhere in Latin America. In particular, the leaders of Ecuador and Costa Rica are following his reelection bid with great interest, as both countries are experiencing a spike in drug-related crime.

“Bukele proved a ‘zero tolerance’ model suspending rights works — and quickly,” said Amparo Marroquin of the University of Central America. “Now others in Latin America want rapid results in security and the polls, and along with that comes more power in the executive.”

Bukele, a 42-year-old former publicist, has alongside the gang crackdown sought to project an image of a transformed, modern nation.

He made El Salvador the world’s first to accept bitcoin as legal tender and is a regular on Instagram and TikTok. Rejecting suits in favor of jeans with tight crew-neck sweaters, he set the tone for his presidency when he opened his address to the U.N. General Assembly in 2019 by taking a selfie posted to Twitter.
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Credit: NBC News