A tale of two El Salvadors

Kurt Mahlburg

February 13, 2024 4 Reactions

Typical of his Trumpian treatment by the tabloids is a Vox article that explains:

During his nearly five years in office, Bukele has declared an ongoing state of emergency, using the threat of gang violence to curtail civil liberties. He very publicly stormed the legislature with the aid of the military to demand funding for his policy priorities. And the fact that Bukele ran for reelection at all was unprecedented and probably illegal: El Salvador’s constitution explicitly bars re-election to consecutive presidential terms. Still, he has claimed victory in the vote, and few are disputing that he won the presidency, though 60 seats in Congress are being disputed by El Salvador’s electoral body.

Human rights violations

Democrat Representative Ilhan Omar is one of Bukele’s more outspoken critics stateside. She recently called him a “threat to democracy” and urged the Biden Administration to re-assess its relationship with El Salvador.

In a letter to the White House signed by a collection of her Congressional allies, Omar warned:

According to the State Department’s 2022 Country Reports on Human Rights, since the State of Exception was put in place, El Salvador has seen “[s]ignificant human rights issues including credible reports of: unlawful or arbitrary killings, forced disappearances; torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by security forces; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; serious restrictions on free expression and media, including censorship and threats to enforce criminal laws to limit expression; serious government corruption; lack of investigation and accountability for gender-based violence; significant barriers to accessing sexual and reproductive health services; and crimes involving violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex individuals.”

No doubt, some of the condemnation is justified. It would be a miracle for such a sweeping crime crackdown to take place anywhere without at least some of the abuses described above.

Certainly, El Salvador’s future will depend in large measure on what Nayib Bukele does with the authority he now enjoys.

While outside observers will continue to draw their own conclusions, one thing is clear: Salvadorans can’t get enough of Bukele.

He will be sworn in at an official inauguration in June.

Kurt Mahlburg is a writer and author and an emerging Australian voice on culture and the Christian faith. He has a passion for both the philosophical and the personal, drawing on his background as a graduate architect, a primary school teacher, a missionary, and a young adult pastor.

Image: Wikimedia Commons