Bukele is a social media wizard with a pointy beard who rejects convention.
San Salvador:
Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s gang-busting president, was overwhelmingly re-elected on Sunday, ironically embracing the nickname “dictator” and dismissing criticism of human rights abuses.
The 42-year-old president has ridden a wave of domestic and international support for his unlimited “war” on gangs to become the most popular president in Latin America and the world.
But critics say he also stormed parliament militarily, replaced judges he considered hostile and oversaw the incarceration of innocent people.
On Sunday, he defiantly dismissed criticism of his government’s rounding up of tens of thousands of suspected gangsters.
“Do you think we, because we are Salvadorans… because we are second-class citizens or something, must die?” he said in response to a question from a Western reporter.
“They (gangs) have to kill our families, they have to kill our children because your liberal ideas of what democracy should be have to be respected?” he continued in English.
Bukele has previously condemned rare protesters for “vandalism” and called independent media and critics liars and defenders of criminal activity.
On Sunday, before the official results were announced, he claimed to have swept the election with at least 85% of the vote: a “record in the entire history of world democracy”.
“dedication”
Bukele is a social media wizard with a pointy beard who refuses to conform to convention, often ditching his tie and presidential belt in favor of jeans and a baseball cap – which he also wore while voting.
Photos with Lionel Messi, selfies on the rostrum of the United Nations General Assembly: The president posts prolifically on X, YouTube and Facebook, bypassing traditional platforms and communicating directly with his millions of fans ( usually in English).
“He has developed a cult of personality; people are loyal to him,” Michael Shift, an analyst at the Washington-based think tank Inter-American Dialogue, told AFP.
“His charisma and communication skills are unparalleled in Latin America.”
Bukele is of Palestinian descent and is the son of the capital, San Salvador, where he was born in 1981.
He studied law at the University of Central America but did not graduate, and at 18 he joined his father’s textile, pharmaceutical and propaganda business empire.
Bukele began his political career in his early 30s, serving as mayor of a suburb of San Salvador and later as mayor of the capital.
He was promoted to president in 2019, upending an unpopular, corruption-riddled two-party system of governance that had characterized El Salvador since its civil war ended nearly three decades ago.
Since March 2022, he has presided over a gang roundup that is credited with leading to a significant drop in homicide rates, but has also been criticized for indiscriminate arrests of minors and inhumane prison conditions.
The decline in violence in El Salvador is a success the president likes to tout online, drowning out complaints about growing authoritarianism and economic woes.
“We … turned the murder capital of the world, the most dangerous country in the world, into the safest country in the Western Hemisphere,” he said Sunday.
“The Philosopher King”
Bukele dislikes criticism and often makes sarcastic remarks online.
He often changes his approach to X (formerly known as Twitter), calling himself the “Dictator of El Salvador” and “the coolest dictator in the world” to satirize his critics.
Today he is known as the “Philosopher King”.
Despite his outward appearance of joking, Bukele showed a ruthless side.
While the gang vowed to kill randomly in response to the state of emergency, Bukele simply threatened to deprive the imprisoned gang of food.
Shortly after taking office, he ordered heavily armed police and soldiers to attack the then-opposition-led parliament to intimidate lawmakers into approving a loan to fund anti-crime programs.
That led lawmakers to call on a congressional committee to declare him “mentally incompetent” to govern.
Bukele’s New Idea party and its allies subsequently won a majority in the Legislative Assembly, which immediately replaced top judges and the attorney general – two institutions that have clashed with the president.
The Supreme Court, newly aligned with Bukele, allowed him to seek re-election despite the constitution’s single-term limit.
Asked on Sunday whether he would change the law to seek a third term, the president responded: “I don’t think there is a need for constitutional reform.”
He has not made it clear what his future plans are.
Bukele is married to psychologist and ballet dancer Gabriella Rodriguez, with whom she has two children.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
