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Nayib Bukele has ruled El Salvador since 2019. The President is extremely popular – and wants to run again in 2024.
Nayib Bukele almost never wears a tie, but a baseball cap, which he puts on his head backwards. But the casual look is deceptive. Bukele is not a representative of an alternative subculture, but of El Salvador’s rich elite.
Legend:
Likes to relax: Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador since 2019.
Reuters / Jose Cabezas
His career began in the family-owned company empire. At the age of 30, he suddenly decided to go into politics. He first became president of a small town, then president of the capital, San Salvador. In 2019 he made it into the presidential palace.
70,000 arrests – no trials, no verdicts
Bukele explained what he wants in politics, among other things, at the UN in New York: “We never had the freedom to decide our own fate.” And he now wants to take this freedom to make his own decisions.
So the President decided to build a huge prison. Within a few weeks, he had around 70,000 mostly young men locked up there and in other prisons. They are suspected of belonging to criminal gangs known as «maras». Those gangs that make El Salvador one of the most dangerous countries.
Legend:
Less violence, fewer murders: That’s Bukele’s promise. However, the crime statistics cannot be checked independently.
Reuters/Jessica Orellana
Only: These 70,000 men were arrested by emergency law, without a trial, without a verdict. Bukele rejects criticism across the board: “Limpiar su casa”, he takes the right to “clean his house” – by which he means his country.
“Cleaning” sounds harmless. But critics say massive human rights violations are hidden behind this word. Many innocent people are among the tens of thousands arrested. There is torture in the prisons.
Legend:
The new prison in Tecoluca became operational at the end of January. It offers space for up to 40,000 inmates.
Keystone/AP, El Salvador presidential press office
According to reliable estimates, around two percent of El Salvador’s adult population is in prison, more than anywhere else.
Bitcoin as official means of payment
This is the one key figure for Bukele. The other is the Bitcoin exchange rate: “We are building a Bitcoin City,” he called out to supporters – a futuristic city that should only be based on the cryptocurrency. Bukele made Bitcoin the official means of payment alongside the US dollar.
He rejects the criticism that the speculative ups and downs of Bitcoin could drive the state to ruin. It is difficult to say how Bitcoin will actually affect the official currency. Also because Bukele only publishes very little data via Twitter.
Legend:
In September, Bitcoin was introduced as legal tender in El Salvador – which also led to protests.
Reuters / Jose Cabezas
One thing is clear: Bukele is extremely popular in El Salvador and is also being imitated abroad and in other Latin American countries – because he has made his country safer in the eyes of many.
That’s why he wants to run again next spring, although the constitution forbids this. But laws don’t bother Bukele much. That was shown in 2020 when Parliament rejected one of his bills. Bukele reacted violently. Without further ado, he had Parliament occupied by the military. In an inflammatory speech, the President justified what is called a coup d’etat.
The people forgive him because they see one thing above all – the statistics that say: less violence, fewer murders. Although there is a thing with these statistics: there are members of the opposition or journalists who say that Bukele doctored these statistics. Or he paid the bosses of criminal gangs to kill less.
A serious accusation. Which also remains in the room because there are fewer and fewer independent judges and journalists under the authoritarian president.