“Coffee from my farm, free”: Bukele does marketing on social media

“The ‘presi’ invites you to a coffee”is read on paper cups under the name of the Salvadoran president’s account X Nayib Bukele, who on Wednesday offered to give away grain from his farm to restaurants so that customers could have a free cup.

“I will donate (personally and not from the government) 200 pounds of coffee [90 kilos] and 8,000 small glasses (plus sugar, etc.), so that [restaurantes] Give to your customers”Bukele announced on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

The president said he will choose “a business every day” because he received “emails from entrepreneurs” after advertising the offer of a recently opened restaurant in the center of San Salvador, with a huge mural of his image on its yellow walls.

“3 pupusas for $1. And coffee from my farm, free,” Bukele wrote on social media, where he also posted a photo of a paper cup next to three stuffed corn tortillas, the most traditional dish of Salvadorans.

The restaurant that made that offer, and whose customer influx increased after the president’s publicity, is decorated with colorful posters of a smiling Bukele in a white cap and the message: “Step by StepBukele, a 42-year-old publicist who claims to be radically transforming the country, enjoys enormous popularity thanks to his offensive against the gangs that terrorized Salvadorans.

The motivation of the president, who is accused by his critics of being a populist, is unclear. “He knows how to sell and what better way to do it than by giving people a sample of his coffee”sociologist René Martínez told AFP, who did not rule out a marketing strategy.

After his war against gangs, Bukele says he will now take on “the mafias” that keep food prices high.

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