On Nayib Bukele

 On Nayib Bukele

 For the last several weeks, I've been genuinely interested in an extremely intriguing political figure who has given his country a radical turn: Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, a petty country in the middle of the Americas. Despite his young age on the day of his election, he deftly managed to gain the favour of the electoral body through a series of spot-on decisions and practices he waged against cartels and gangs. Admirably, the country broke a perplexing record in terms of the diminution of crime rates since it was declared to be the most perilous non-belligerent country in 2015. How did Nayib Bukele's presidency manage to do this, and should we have reservations? Here are my thoughts.

 For a little bit of context, Nayib Bukele was born in San Salvador, the capital city, in 1981 as the child of a Palestinian imam and businessman. Since he began to work in his father's companies, he left the university where he was studying legal sciences. Then, his political life began in 2011 when he joined the political party FMLN (Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional) in order to run for mayor's office in the small village of Nuevo Cuscatlán. On March the 11th 2012, he was elected as the candidate of a coalition between FMLN and CD (Cambio Democrático). This election is of crucial importance because he rose to fame there thanks to his anti-gang policies that turned out to be a sheer success, converting Nuevo Cuscatlán into the safest city in El Salvador. At that epoch, El Salvador had been plagued by violent narco-trafficking organisations that had come into existence with the Salvadorian civil war in the 1980s and 1990s. It had one of the worst homicide rates in the world. Moreover, the country would saddeningly continue to spike even after Bukele's election as a mayor in 2012 until 2015 when it made a deplorable and stunning peak of around 105 homicides per 100,000 people. However, Bukele was elected in 2015 as the mayor of the capital, San Salvador, on the grounds of his apt management of the severe gang problem. In the aftermath of other dazzling successes in the realm of struggle against gangs and investments in infrastructures so that young generations can access education and stay away from criminal groups, he decides to run for the presidency. At this stage, he splits off from his party to establish his own: Nuevas Ideas (New Ideas).

 The year 2019 marked a turning point in the history of El Salvador because a young 38-year-old presidential candidate would rule the country as of this date. Unlike his opponents who mainly focused on conventional media to advertise themselves, he opted for an unusual method of reaching out to apolitical Salvadorians through social media. He cultivated his popular image with improvised videos and somewhat humorous publications. In the end, he inflicted a shameful defeat on his opponents with a bewildering 53% and he emerges victorious. Right after the elections, he declared war against Salvadorian cartels by implementing a state of emergency as he had promised. He modernised the police equipment and ordered them to go into cities in order to conduct thorough searches and reclaim neighbourhoods occupied by criminal groups. Furthermore, he forbade prison visits with the goal of precluding any possible communication between incarcerated gang leaders and their subordinates at large. However, what is most nonplussing is that he coronated his efforts with the rapid construction of a maximum security penitentiary facility with a capacity of 40,000 inmates. This prison built approximately 70 kilometres southeast of the capital San Salvador, called CECOT for its acronym, raised questions and drew fire about its conditions. By all means, the country succeeded in attaining, after so much struggle, a shocking homicide rate of 7,8 homicides per 100,000 people in 2022, which placed it amongst the safest countries all around the globe. Even today, Salvadorian citizens share their joy and relief on the subject of security, which was only a vague and abstract word several years back; nevertheless, we shouldn't omit the fact that the baby tends to be thrown out with the bath water. In contrast to happy Salvadorians, thousands of them claim justice for their missing relatives or family members that have been arbitrarily, at least that is what they put forth, arrested. Having seen police violence and abuse reports, it shouldn't be hard to reckon that it is a delicate and complex issue.

 As for my own opinions, I would like to state that I bear a somewhat considerable liking for President Bukele. As a person who speaks Spanish and has knit close relations with Latin Americans over the course of the last few years, I am exorbitantly sympathetic towards them, and the prosperity of Hispanic countries would be one of my primary wishes in this world. Thus, this eradication of such criminal organisations instills in me an indescribable mix of sheer joy and long-expected relief; however, I feel the moral obligation of acknowledging the downsides of such a radical regime. According to the claims of a Salvadorian police officer, they have a quota of 20 arrests per day as a minimum, which leads many underperforming officers to willy-nilly arrest innocent people they run into in the street. It might be questionable, but this undoubtedly sounds plausible. Otherwise, there wouldn't be those mobs of angry citizens protesting in front of the CECOT to see their beloved ones. Estimates predict that every incarcerated person out of six is innocent today, an opprobrium to immediately address! Unfortunately, the Salvadorian government balks at revealing either the list of prisoners or their prison conditions. I, individually, reprehend the government for its secrecy on this matter; however, I congratulate them on their success in dwindling the crime rate too.

 Besides, I have some other reservations too. Having seen the political transformation of President Erdogan for the last two decades as a Turkish citizen, I dread that this young and vivacious president boasting of his incorruptibility, "When you do not embezzle, money is more than enough," says he, and commitment to his nation be corrupted by the unlimited power he flaunts and harm the country in the same way as other politicians did in the past. "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely," says Lord Acton. World history has witnessed so far numerous politicians who debuted as selfless and altruistic companions of their nations end up as monstrous and odious dictators. The cases of Hitler, Lenin, Mao, Putin, Erdogan, and Gaddafi exemplify this to the fullest extent of the word. However, there is no saying what will happen. So we will watch and see. If Mr. Bukele doesn't corrupt and serves his country till the end, he will probably make history and his name will be etched in history. Otherwise, he will end up as a controversial figure in the aforementioned list of dictators.

 In definitive, an ambiguity prevails on the subject of Bukele and his policies, and it seems that it will prevail for a while more. The only thing we certainly can say of him is that he is a successful politician in spite of his questionable modus operandi. I encourage the international authorities to ensure justice in El Salvador, and I wish the best for that beautiful country.

Thank you for reading,

Athel.