There are not even political miracles in El Salvador. The country known as the ‘Little Thumb of Latin America’ seems to have no salvation other than the salvation that Latin America offers. Nayib Bukele: Strong hand and obedience. Its punitive effectiveness is so well known that the president He hopes to be re-elected with overwhelming support this Sunday For more than six million citizens to vote.
to Bukele loves records. Not just in the fight against crime. This night of February 4, he will become the first president in the recent history of this Central American country to extend his term at the helm. He will continue in power alongside his vice president, Félix Ulloa, despite the fact that the constitution prohibits immediate re-election. The Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) concluded the debate in favor of the president with the stroke of a pen, in which the majority of lawyers were on the side against the wishes of the president.
Polls predict a landslide victory. The Jesuit-run José Simeón Cañas University of Central America (UCA) appointed the candidate of the ruling party Nuevas Ideas. Voting intention 81.9%. The survey by Francisco Gavidia University (UFG) reveals that 70.9% of Salvadorans prefer it. Manuel ‘Chino’ Flores of the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), second place with 4 pointsHe is so far from a favorite that it makes him a stone-cold guest in a controversial race.
Assembly Renewal
“The fight is to ensure that no one who thinks differently from this Government is imprisoned. We can walk safely but without fear, without stigmaFlores suggested, without a very positive audience, “without saying that you are poor and therefore suspicious.” Other rivals included the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena), which was decisive after the peace agreement ended in 2007. The civil war of 30 years ago is even further away, as extras in a movie with a known ending. The renewal of the 60-member Legislative Assembly will also be in the president’s favor, as he will be able to govern the country without the intervention of the parliament. According to consultants’ forecasts, the party led by his cousin Xavier Zablah Bukele will hold 55 of the seats.
Proselytizing campaign turned into fake competition a country dominated by enormous social inequality despite the fact that its economy will grow by 2.8% in 2023 and unemployment will affect 5% of the population. The government invoked not only its controversial achievements in terms of security, but also the privileges and privileges prohibited by Magna Carta. Bukele’s media headache digital magazine ‘El Faro’ reported: State took to the streets “prisoners and public employees in the security phase” distributing food products, toilet paper boxes, among other items in the basic basket, nationwide. “There are also public workers distributing rice and fertilizers donated by China.”
A story of violence
This is the seventh election since the FMLN and the State signed the agreement ending the 12-year conflict that left the country. 75,000 dead and 8,000 missing. Aside from the reshaping of a world order that did not comply with the logic of the Cold War, the civil conflict ended because neither side could prevail. But the peace was short-lived because this country was in ruins and had no horizon. A significant portion of the population survives on money sent by their relatives. This figure, which will reach 8 billion 181 million dollars in 2023, also includes another type of violence: criminal gangs.
Bukele’s popularity is based on his control of urban space, especially popular neighborhoods, and a significant decrease in the murder rate. The government eliminated them at a social and economic cost. “There is a lesser-known side to the change in homeland security: Arrest of thousands of innocent people and criminalization of people living in poor communities“, he recalled of ‘El Faro.’
This issue is not part of the election debate, among other reasons, because the president does not want to bring it up for discussion. In fact, on January 9, El Salvador’s Congress approved, with a large pro-government majority, a twenty-second extension of the suspension of constitutional guarantees in effect since March 2022, following an increase in murders attributed to gangs.
Negotiations with a Mexican cartel
A few days before the elections, ‘El Faro’ revealed that the authorities were ready to pay a million dollars to the Mexican cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación to kidnap gang leader Élmer Canales Rivera, nicknamed ‘Crook’, and deliver him to a secret location. After being illegally released in 2023. Inspector Raúl Eduardo Reyes Escuintla, head of the Elite Division Against Organized Crime (DECO) “He went into the underworld to find allies with connections in the Mexican criminal world.“.
Based on audio and messages on a phone in his possession, the digital publication stated that an elite member of the National Civilian Police (PNC) “participated in negotiations with coyotes and a fugitive gang leader for several months in 2023.” To whom they released intelligence information, paid per diem, and allowed the release of his sister in exchange for him negotiating with the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel for Crook’s recapture. ‘Alias Crook’ is one of the 14 historical leaders of MS-13. USA wants to judge terrorism.
The president attributed this information to “(George) Soros’s well-functioning network (including media and paid journalists)” that came to light “at the end of the election campaign.” Bukele controls not only urban space but also virtual space. This is the guarantee of your guaranteed victory.