With this trick, the ‘coolest dictator in the world’ wants to become president again soon. What a peace plan for the Middle East could look like

Human rights organizations have been warning about his authoritarian practices for years. Thousands regularly take to the streets in El Salvador to protest against him. And really, he shouldn’t even be on the ballot anymore. Nevertheless, Nayib Bukele will probably be elected president for the second time on Sunday – and with a clear majority, according to the first polls.

El Salvador’s constitution states that a president can only serve one term. However, the rule can be circumvented, as Bukele has shown. About two years ago, constitutional judges loyal to the government approved the president’s renewed candidacy on the condition that he take a six-month break between the two terms.

Bukele therefore took six months’ leave in November. Since then, the Chief Cabinet Secretary of the Presidency, Claudia Rodriguez, has fulfilled the duties of the President. Critics accuse the 42-year-old of manipulating the law – it is not the first time.

Thousands of innocent people behind bars

In the fight against gang crime, the “world’s coolest dictator,” as he has called himself on Twitter in the past, ordered the construction of a mega prison for about 40,000 people. The images of hundreds of shaven men with bare chests and gang tattoos huddled on the ground with their arms behind their backs shocked the world.

Since then, more than 72,000 suspected gang members have been arrested. Thousands of them wrongly, as human rights organizations say. To ease the burden on overburdened courts, Bukele’s “Nuevas Ideas” party – which has a majority in parliament – ​​introduced legal reforms that allowed mass trials of up to 900 people. El Salvador is currently the country with the most prisoners in the world. Nearly two percent of the population is behind bars.

Many prefer a dictatorship

Although the president’s authoritarian tactics scare many people, a majority of the population votes for him precisely because they deliver results. Bukele has ruled the country with six million inhabitants since 2019. His crackdown on organized crime has been very well received by Salvadorans.

For decades, turf wars transformed the country into one of the most dangerous in the world, triggering a wave of migration to the United States, while ruling parties did little to curb the suffering. A fisherman who used to live in a town in El Salvador told the New York Times, “I would rather live under the dictatorship of a man who serves his mind than under the dictatorship of a bunch of psychopathic lunatics.”

Bukele’s Vice President Felix Ulloa, who is running for re-election with him on February 4, has made no secret of the fact that he does not attach much importance to democracy in the country. For years, the system only benefited corrupt politicians: “It was lazy, corrupt and bloodthirsty,” he said. The plan is to replace democracy with “something new”.

The young president, who often wears his basketball cap backwards and has introduced Bitcoin as the national currency, enjoys the support of some 80 percent of the population in his country, including the young. More than 7.5 million people follow him on Tiktok. His videos are usually liked millions of times. On Sunday, the people of El Salvador are expected to hand Nayib Bukele control of their country for a second time, hoping to live in safety in return. (aargauerzeitung.ch)