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Nayib Bukele likes it when they call him the most handsome and cool president in the world. He usually meets his constituents in a black motorcycle jacket and a white, back-facing cap. During the night of the elections, he financed a fireworks display that lit up the capital, San Salvador. The authoritarian president filmed and posted on Twitter the video where he wrote: “VICTORY! “(Victoria). The electoral authority has now confirmed that his party will win 56 of 84 seats in parliament.
“Our people have been waiting for this for 40 years. We create history,” Bukele writes on Twitter.
In the two years that Nayib Bukele has been president of El Salvador, he has crushed the political establishment that has ruled the country since the end of the Thirteen Years Civil War in 1992. The Civil War made its worst decisions in decades.
Election officials count votes during parliamentary elections in El Salvador.
Photo: Marvin Recinos / TT
Instead, most were of the votes of the New Ideas party of Nayib Bukele that appeared for the first time to the parliamentary elections. The party was founded three years ago and received so many votes that the president can now change the constitution without the opposition intervening, and there are fears that it may remove the barrier that prevents a president from sitting for more than one consecutive term.
– It’s worrying. Since the 1992 peace, a man has not had so much power in hand, Salvadoran journalist Víctor Menjivar tells DN.
He believes that the result of Sunday’s parliamentary elections is proof that Nayib Bukele’s quest for power has been successful.
– It has placed itself in the middle and has managed to exploit the discontent that the other parties have not managed to reduce violence and corruption, he says.
Victor Menjivar.
Photo: Private
A year ago, Nayib Bukele rang Heavily armed military march to parliament ahead of vote on a billion dollar loan to buy new equipment for the army and police.
– He has linked the military and the police with him and has become increasingly authoritarian, says Víctor Menjivar, who is the same age as the president.
After receiving death threats for his journalistic work on street gangs in the capital, San Salvador, Víctor Menjivar is in exile in Stockholm.
– Since Bukele took office, the media situation has deteriorated. As the journalists dance to his rhythm, he smiles and answers all the questions with enthusiasm. But if he receives a critical question from a serious journalist, he goes straight to the attack and organizes a hate campaign on social media, he says.
Nayib Bukele with his characteristic cap on his back.
Photo: Stanley Estrada / TT
By a two-thirds majority In parliament, the president can also appoint a new prosecutor and appoint four new judges to the Supreme Court without consulting the opposition. As two of the nine judges are already in favor of Bukele, there is a risk that he will obtain unlimited power.
– We have lost the balance of power in El Salvador, affirms Víctor Menjivar.
Nayib Bukele’s grandmother and grandfather were Palestinian Christians who immigrated to El Salvador before the state of Israel was formed. His son converted to Islam and was one of the first to build mosques in Central America.
When Nayib Bukele was born in 1981 the civil war had lasted two years, with US-backed death squads assassinating people they suspected of sympathizing with the left-wing guerrilla group FMLN. Ten years ago, Bukele joined the FMLN and became mayor of a town of just under 8,000 inhabitants. He built a power base and in 2015 was able to win mayoral elections in the capital, San Salvador.
After an altercation with one of the members of the FMLN, he was expelled from the party and has since criticized the party for corruption. Two of the former Left Party presidents are abroad for fear of conviction. The fact that Bukele also criticized the right-wing party and sat down harshly against street gangs in San Salvador has made him immensely popular with the population. According to an opinion poll from November last year, 96 percent responded that they did a good or very good job.
That Nayib Bukele, who is Latin American The younger president, in principle eradicated the opposition means that the country’s civil society and independent media have had a greater role to play.
– The problem is that it has clearly shown that it does not have much left for free media, says Erik Halkjaer, president of Reporters Without Borders.
In the last eight years, El Salvador has lost 36 positions in the Reporters Without Borders index of press freedom. Today, the country ranks 74th out of 180 countries.
