El Salvador Perspectives

He used social media to propel himself to the presidency of El Salvador.   Now Nayib Bukele is using Twitter to govern the country, starting with firing officials from the former administration whom Bukele believes received their positions through nepotism.  As Reuters reports: The 37-year-old former mayor of San Salvador, who was sworn in on Saturday, has taken some of his first actions in office via Twitter, including giving officials the ax.  His targets so far have included relatives of former president Salvador Sánchez Cerén and figures from the outgoing political party, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front.  “CEL President William Granadino is ordered to remove Claudia Sánchez Villalta, daughter of former President Sánchez Cerén, from her position,” he wrote in one such post on Tuesday, addressing the president of the country’s hydroelectric energy commission. “Do not hire a replacement.”  Bukele, an avid social media user with more than 700,000 Twitter followers, has …

A new government has assumed power in El Salvador, and there are new leaders in the Ministry of Justice and Security, the Ministry of Defense, and the National Civilian Police.  Those new leaders would be well served to review what independent observers have said recently about the current state of human rights observance in El Salvador.

From the Executive Summary of the US State Department Annual Human Rights Report for El Salvador 2018:
Civilian authorities failed at times to maintain effective control over security forces.  Human rights issues included allegations of unlawful killings of suspected gang members and others by security forces; forced disappearances by military personnel; torture by security forces; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; lack of government respect for judicial independence; widespread government corruption; violence against women and girls that was infrequently addressed by the authorities, as well as security for…

Nayib Bukele has been working quickly to put his own stamp on El Salvador's executive branch

Bukele announced the rest of his cabinet.   His primary cabinet ministers end up being equal parts men and women.   As El Faro describes the new cabinet in an article published after the announcements, the majority of the new cabinet members are people who have been part of Bukele's circle of close business associates, confidants and members of his administration in San Salvador in the past.

With respect to Bukele's security cabinet, a commander from El Salvador's Navy, René Merino, will be the new Minister of Defense.   The new Minister of Justice and Security, Rogelio Rivas Polanco, is a civil engineer by training who does not have  direct police or criminal justice background.   He was one of the founders of the party Nuevas Ideas and most recently he held the position of head of the Institute of Municipal Development in El Salvador.  The new head of the National Civilian Po…

El Salvador has a new president today. Nayib Bukele was sworn in as president in a ceremony in front of the historic National Palace in Plaza Gerardo Barrios in the center of San Salvador. It was a site picked by Bukele, both for the historic significance of the plaza bordered by the National Palace and the Metropolitan Cathedral, but also because the renovation of this plaza and surrounding blocks was one of the prime achievements during his time as mayor of San Salvador.

Bukele also wanted this outdoor venue, instead of an indoor venue like the capital’s convention center (CIFCO) where prior ceremonies have been held, so that as many of his adoring followers as possible could attend. And Bukele’s supporters showed up in force to celebrate the inauguration of a president they see as a break from the corrupt politicians of the major political parties of the past. The public areas of the plaza, spilling into surrounding streets, were filled with Salvadorans wearing the light blue…