In this increasingly complex world, technology, very positive for many areas, has undoubtedly contributed to complicate certain situations through its misuse.

I mean specifically politics. I mean social networks, WhatsApp chats. I mean those “parallel worlds” made up of citizens, their followers and followers; by fellow chats, fed by other chats and other chats, firing ready-made content to praise some and destroy others. To create heroes, saviors of the homeland and defenders of the poor, and villains, responsible for all the misfortunes of the homeland, and enemies of high national interests. Marginalized and lonely elites, worried about their jobs, their interests, closed in their new digital world.

Worlds mostly separate from the real world where 97% of Ecuadorians, Colombians, Peruvians, Argentines, Panamanians, Guatemalans, Salvadorans or Mexicans live who share the same problems.

This is why only politicians who go out into the streets, who bury themselves in the mud, who eat the sun and who live, even if only “visiting”, the urban reality, have the possibility of putting together a government plan and a discourse aligned with the needs, anxieties and illusions of the great majority, who are ultimately (and thank God) you who choose the rulers.

I am saying this because of the criticism that is now circulating everywhere against President Bukele and his management at the head of El Salvador, due to the fact that an outsider publicly praised his successful anti-violence policy in that country.

There is a lack of empathy in our societies, especially on the part of certain elites who have not learned that they are marginalized.

This column does not intend to analyze the practices of Bukele’s government or whether they all respected human rights. As the great Spanish journalist said: “…in every story there is more than one truth…”. But it highlights two realities: the rates of violence and insecurity before and after Bukele, and the high levels of public acceptance of his management.

A ruler’s popularity does not always guarantee that his actions are democratic or transparent, as we have already experienced firsthand in Ecuador and many other countries in the region. But it confirms that something is being done right in terms of improving the quality of life for the vast majority.

It is VERY easy for those who live in a residential urban circle and have economic stability and access to private health care to offend the ruler by criticizing his undemocratic practices or his shortcomings in one area or another. But who does not have a job and receives financial assistance, who does not have access to health care and receives medical assistance, or who survives every day by going out into the street and seeing family, friends and neighbors being killed every day and, suddenly, sees that violence it drastically reduces or disappears, appreciates what it gets and doesn’t care about the rest.

There is a lack of empathy in our societies, especially on the part of certain elites who have not learned that they are marginalized. (OR)