Behind Nayib Bukele’s “Shocking” Turn
Behind Nayib Bukele’s “Shocking” Turn
The president’s election heralded change, but his strongman tactics suggest otherwise.
In his successful bid for El Salvador’s presidency, Nayib Bukele styled himself as an outsider, founding a political party under the mantle of “New Ideas” After his election in 2019, he promised a “new era” for El Salvador But the images shared by the young president on April 26 – of hundreds of half-naked imprisoned gang members, forced nearly on top of each other in defiance of the social distancing protocols Bukele has mandated for the rest of the country – suggested a new way of doing things may have to wait in El Salvador “What Bukele is ordering is really a...
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