Bukele celebrates four years of government with massive support but also with criticism

President Nayib Bukele celebrates this Thursday four years in power in The Savior with great popularity for his “war” against The gangbut with criticism of the validity of democratic values.

Surveys show that nine out of ten salvadorans approve of Bukele’s managementwhich has returned security to the streets, but his anti-gang crusade set off alarm bells among human rights defenders and some analysts warn that he seems to govern without a check from other state powers.

“The issue of reducing the operation of gangs can be described as a notable achievement (…), due to the reduction in the number of crimes committed,” declares Carlos Carcach, researcher in the public policy area at the Higher School of Economics and Business.

“The main achievement is the issue of security, the dismantling of gangs”match Carlos Acevedo, former president of the Central Reserve Bank.

“It has really generated a new climate where we are beginning to see a revitalization of the productive fabric of microenterprises”it states.

69,000 detainees

Gangs maintained control of 80% of the country’s territory, according to the governmentand were financed with massive extortion, hit men and drug trafficking.

To combat them, an emergency regime has been in force for 14 months that allows the police and the army to make arrests without a warrant.

The measure was approved by Congress at the request of Bukele, in response to an escalation of gang violence that claimed the lives of 87 people.

The authorities have been liberating neighborhoods and recovering thousands of houses usurped by gang members. Homicides fell in 2022 to a quarter of the 2019 figure, according to official data.

Threatened by gangs, Cristina Arévalo, 71, had to close her small store on the outskirts of San Salvador a few years ago, but now she plans to reopen it.

“With the security that exists, I will soon reopen, because they are no longer going to extort mesays the woman.

So far nearly 69,000 suspected gang members have been detained, of whom some 5,000 have been released, according to the government.

To lock up the gang members, Bukele built a mega-prison for 40,000 inmates, the prison “Biggest in America”with a severe confinement regime.

The NGO Cristosal said that until April 153 inmates had died “in custody of the State”.

Re-election

A 41-year-old publicist who uses social networks, Bukele has faced almost non-existent opposition since the “shaking” of 2019, when he defeated the candidates of the traditional parties of the right and left.

With the support of Congress, where he has a large majority, in 2021 he dismissed the five judges of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Courtthe highest court in the country.

He also dismissed the attorney general and a third of the 690 judges (those over 60 or with 30 years of service). The United States, the UN and the OAS then called on El Salvador to respect the separation of powers.

Besides, Bukele got the Supreme Court to authorize him to seek the re-election in 2024, although the Constitution prohibits it, generating a debate on whether the measure is legal.

“The government and the president have everything ready for re-election, not only because of popular support, but because they have control of the majority of the institutions”says the vice-rector of the Central American University (UCA), Omar Serrano.

“It has been a government that has shaken the country,” but what “It has taken away many things, which has undermined the incipient democratic advances that were made”add.

For Carcach, the cost of containing the gangs has been “Implanting a regime of exception that implies the disappearance of the rule of law and the reign of the constitution.”

Meanwhile, the Jesuit priest and professor at the UCA Rodolfo Cardenal affirms that in the country people live “the denial of constitutional law and human rights”.

It can’t be done “solve a crime by committing a series of violations”indicates.

Salvadorans endorse Bukele’s methods because “The country has had a dictatorial and authoritarian mentality for a long time, and because it thinks that this is the solution, but in the long term it is not sustainable”warns Cardinal.

bitcoin crash

Another controversial measure by Bukele was lto adoption of bitcoin as legal tender.

In September 2021, El Salvador was the first country to adopt bitcoin, along with the dollar, which has been in circulation since 2001. But the price of the cryptocurrency plummeted and has had little acceptance in the country.

The adoption of bitcoin “It has been the most unpopular measure and has had the least social support”affirms Serrano, in charge of public opinion studies at the UCA.

Source: AFP