The Salvadorans voted this sunday in general elections that are expected to give the re-election and greater power for President Nayib Bukeleapplauded by smash the gangs but criticized by loss of freedoms that accompanied that implacable “war.”
Bukele, a 42-year-old former publicistis almost guaranteed a second five-year termwith a popularity of 90% and without weight rivalsand could even make the opposition disappear in the Congress, which you already control comfortably.
In a vote that is carried out under Exception status For the first time since the civil war ended in 1992, some 6.2 million Salvadorans, 740,000 of them abroad, are called to the polls, which will close at 17 (20 in Argentina).
“We will set an example of civility,” said the Chairwoman of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), Dora Martínezwhen the voting was inaugurated in an event in the historic center of San Salvador.
Relieved with the tranquility that came to their neighborhoods previously taken over by the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 gangsmany Salvadorans applaud the policy of Bukele’s “iron hand”even at the cost of some freedoms.
“I had to pay ‘rent’ (extortion), they told me they were going to kill my wife and my mother. They came to my work with guns. Now everything has improved,” the merchant told the AFP news agency. Nelson Garcia39 years old, who sells food in the capital.
Bukele imposed a state of exception that militarized the country
After a bloody weekend with 87 dead, In March 2022, Bukele imposed a state of emergency that militarized the country and suspended constitutional guarantees.
Since then, the policy led to 76,000 detainees and officially reduced murders to historic lows 2.4 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023in what was previously the country with the greatest criminal violence in the world.
But organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch denounce arbitrary arrests, torture and deaths in prison.
Some 7,000 innocents were freedbut many remain in prison without due process or being able to communicate with their families.
bukele prisons.webp
With more and more power, Bukele – of Palestinian descent and who mocks his critics who call him a “dictator” – controls, in addition to the Parliament, Justice, the Prosecutor’s Office and the rest of the state apparatus.
Magistrates renewed by that Congress they interpreted the Constitution in his favor and, despite re-election being prohibited, they allowed him to run for a second term, which is why analysts and opponents claim that his candidacy is unconstitutional. The opposition is in pieces.
A weak opposition tries to confront Bukele
Its five candidates barely appear in the polls, including those of the leftist Farabundo Martí Front (FMLN), Manuel Flores, and the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena), Joel Sánchez.
“With another five years, he will have enough time to consolidate a dynamic of a hegemonic party,” he told AFP. political scientist Álvaro Artiga, from the Central American University (UCA).
According to polls, the ruling party New Ideas would get 57 of the 60 seatswhich would reinforce its control of the legislative Assembly, eliminating any possibility of counterweight in the enclosure. He FMLN would get two seats and Arena, one.
The other parties, meanwhile, face the possibility of losing their legal status, given that according to Salvadoran electoral law, political groups must obtain a minimum of 50,000 votes or at least one seat to retain it.
Very sure of his re-election, the most popular president of Latin Americaaccording to a regional survey, has not even asked for the vote for him.
Stirring fear of the return of gangs, he asked to vote for New ideas and not lose a single one of the 56 seats it has in the outgoing legislature, so as not to put the war against the gangs at risk.
with between 5 and 7 million followers on X, Tiktok, Instagram and Facebook, Bukelemarried to the psychologist Gabriela Rodríguez and with whom he has two girls, he promotes megaprojects and tourism in “the safest country in Latin America.”
Source: Ambito
