Nayib Bukele, the self -proclaimed 'the world's coolest dictator', will mark six years as President of El Salvador on Sunday, a period defined by controversial reforms, which critics say they have brought peace into the streets at an incredibly high price.
His iron fist action against crime in the country, which was once the most violent nation in the western hemisphere, led to the arrest and detention of around 87,000 people, often with little praised process.
The government has defended the move and points to significant reductions in national gang violence, but opponents say that it came at the expense of massive imprisonment and the erosion of civil freedom.
The dragnet spread out as time provided to record social groups and journalists who investigate the official collusion with the country's gangs, critics say.
On May 19, Ruth López, an anti-corruption lawyer for the Human Rights Group Cristosal, who is also a prominent critic of Bukele, was held by the Salvadoran authorities for alleged stealing of 'funds of state treasury'. López, however, is still not accused of a crime even though he stays in detention.
Shortly after Lopez was arrested, the government of Bukele brought legislation that taxes foreign donations to NGOs such as Cristosal by 30%, who have described rights groups as an existential threat.
“What we have seen is a massive power concentration in (Bukele's) hands,” said Juan Pappier, deputy director of Latin -America at Human Rights Watch, about Bukele's six years in power. The rule of Bukele is “based on the demolition of the checks and balances of democracy and increasing efforts to silence and intimidate critics.”
The reduction of gang-related crime in El Salvador has made Bukele popular in the Central American nation, so much so that he was re-elected last year in a landslide victory, although the country's constitution had blocked everyone for a second term. (Bukele's allies in the congress ultimately replaced the best judges of the Supreme Court by judges who are willing to interpret the Constitution to his advantage.)
Since March 2022, the country has been under an 'exceptional statement', so that countless constitutional rights are suspended. In the capital San Salvador, many people say that they now feel safe by neighborhoods that are once considered dangerous. Although they acknowledge that the country has seen an enormous increase in imprisonment and a suspension of rights, the supporters of Bukele believe that the resulting peace and safety have been worth considering.
Soldiers are patroling in a neighborhood in San Marcos, El Salvador, in an armored vehicle on October 28, 2024, after Nayib Bukele announced the use of security forces to look for over -testing of gang. – Jose Cabezas/Reuters
Not everyone agrees.
Samuel Ramírez, founder of the movement of victims of the regime (MOVIR), a human rights group that works with families of people who are assumed to have been held without the right process, says that thousands have been arrested about unfounded suspicions to be linked to gangs.
Bukele has previously admitted that some innocent people were accidentally held, but said that several thousand have already been released.
Ramírez and other activists believe that many are too scared to speak publicly.
“Here we see soldiers who are armed on the streets, the police, even armored trucks on the street – tanks. That is synonymous with a country at war,” he said. “The gangs are already neutralized for me. And now the war is against the people, so they don't demonstrate, don't speak out.”
Alleged back door handling
Although he presents himself as a leader of the law and order, Bukele has long had to deal with allegations that he negotiated the peaceful security situation in El Salvador by back door with the gangs.
In 2021, the BIDEN-Administration Bukele's regime of bribing MS-13 and Barrio 18 accused two of the most notorious gangs in El Salvador, to “ensure that incidents of bendege violence and the number of confirmed murderids remained low.” Alleged payouts include cash, mobile phones and prostitutes for capos.
Bukele immediately denied the allegations and called them an 'obvious lie'.
But four years later, Independent Newsroom El Faro published an explosive interview with two self -proclaimed bend leaders from Barrio 18 who claimed that, in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, they had intimidated voters to throw their ballot papers during his buyor from San Salvador.
The two men's novel leaders also claimed that when he became president in 2019, Bukele had arranged that the most powerful gangs in El Salvador abandon delicious murder and extortion, so that they make him look bad, reported El Faro.
Bukele has not yet responded publicly to their allegations, but referred diagonally to the report of El Faro in a position on 10 May, which sarcastically implied the only 'pact' that he made with the bend leaders they placed in prison.
The journalists from El Faro who broke the story fled the country before it was published, anticipating arrest.
“I think Bukele will try to put us in prison. I have no doubt about it. I have no doubt about it, after what he has done to Ruth López, that Bukele has decided to raise the bar and those he regards as the most visible critics in El Salvador,” El Faro editor óscar told Cnn.
He said that seven of the journalists of the publication are confronted with arrest statements for reporting on the alleged deals. Yet he said that the newspaper would continue his journalistic work. Over the past two years, the publication has carried out most of its activities in exile from Costa Rica.
“If there was some appearance of democracy left in El Salvador, it was in independent journalism,” said Noah Bullock, executive director of Cristosal.
CNN has reached the presidency for comments.
'We are under a dictatorship'
Last week the government of Bukele brought a law that charged foreign donations to NGOs at 30%of NGOs.
He had proposed a similar law in 2021, but it did not died. In any case, Bullock says that it is not relevant whether a law is proposed, adopted or submitted in El Salvador: After six years, almost unobstructed power, Bukele is a law in and of himself.
Gracia Grande, the program employee at the Salvadoran branch of the Dutch Institute for Multi -Party Democracy, said CNN said that the law is an existential threat to the work of her NGO.
She said that the law will make it impossible for them to keep working. It gives them three months to renew their registration as a NGO, but they do not know how the process will work.
Grande's assessment of the situation is unambiguous: “At the moment we can say very openly that we are under a dictatorship.”
Despite the growing indignation of law groups, Bukele's punishing penalty system has won him fans.
A prison officer is a guard in the Watchtower in Cecot (Center for the Mandatory Housing of Terrorism) in Tecoluca, San Vicente, El Salvador, on 4 April. – Alex Peña/Getty Images
US President Donald Trump has praised the performance and concluded a deal with Bukele, who agreed to hold hundreds of Venezuelan deportees in El Salvador's Center for Terrorism Confinement, in addition to thousands of detained Salvadorans.
Known as Cecot, the mega prison is considered the largest penitentiary in North and South America and is notorious for the Spartan circumstances that have denounced rights organizations as inhumane.
“I think what happens here is a kind of laboratory for what could happen in other countries,” warned NGO employee Grande. “Even the United States.”
During Trump's April meeting with Bukele in the White House, Bukele suggested that the American president would follow his leadership when it comes to mass arrests.
“Mr. President, you have 350 million people to free, you know,” said Bukele about the American population. “But to free 350 million people, you need some prisoners. You know, that's the way it works, right?”
For more CNN news and newsletters create an account on CNN.com
