Voters reward Bukele for gang crackdown that has transformed security in central American country
El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, has won a thumping victory in elections after voters cast aside concerns about erosion of democracy to reward him for a fierce gang crackdown that transformed security in the central American country.
Thousands of Bukele’s supporters clad in cyan blue and waving flags thronged San Salvador’s central square to celebrate his re-election, which the 42-year-old leader termed a “referendum” on his government.
Bukele declared himself the winner before official results were announced, claiming to have attained more than 85% of the vote. Provisional results showed Bukele winning 83% support with 31% of the ballots counted.
His New Ideas party is expected to win almost all of the 60 seats in the legislative body, tightening its grip on the country and bestowing Bukele, the most powerful leader in El Salvador’s modern history, with even more sway.
He got voted in and just got re-elected.
Unless we have evidence of a rigged election, then no, he’s not a dictator.
Funnily enough, locking up violent criminals is a vote winner. Who knew?!
I agree with everything you said, until the end, but only because it’s inaccurate.
He’s casting a very wide net, that a lot of innocent people have been caught in.
Now, given the circumstances that might be understandable, and it seems that a majority of their voting citizens believe that’s an acceptable cost.
I’m not going to cast any moral judgement on them for that, but I think we should be honest about the totality of his policies.
We shouldn’t lie and call him a dictator, but we also shouldn’t lie and say that only criminals have been caught up in his policing actions.