Nayib Bukele's bad press

In 2018, Nayib Bukele tweeted out a link to an article in The Economist which labeled him "El Salvador's Rising Political Star."   Bukele has not, however, been retweeting this week's articles from The Economist, or several other articles in the international press:

My tweet is your command: Nayib Bukele may want to become Latin America’s first millennial dictator, The Economist.  "[I]n his 11 months as president he has done more to wreck El Salvador's democracy than to reform it. In February he entered the Legislative Assembly with soldiers to bully it into financing his crime-fighting program. With the outbreak of covid-19 his contempt for democratic norms has only grown. Mr. Bukele may be on course to become Latin America's first millennial dictator."

Nayib Bukele’s power grab in El Salvador, The Economist.  "Mr. Bukele's pre-pandemic ambitions are slipping away. A five-year plan drafted by consultants 'fell apart' says an insider. No progress has been made on pledges to raise the minimum income tax threshold and to spruce up 50 town centres. A Commission Against Impunity created in September, never looked like a serious effort to fight graft. it lacks the money and legal structure to do its job. The pandemic has helped to extend Mr. Bukele's honeymoon. It may not last much longer."

Using coronavirus crisis, President Bukele is a threat to democracy in El Salvador, Former US Ambassador to El Salvador Mari Carmen Aponte in an op-ed in the Miami Herald.  "In less than a year in office, this popular president has placed himself above the law. In the process, he has managed to tread on two hard-earned Salvadoran achievements: democracy and the delicate peace accords that concluded the bloody Salvadoran civil war less than three decades ago."

Young Leader Vowed Change in El Salvador but Wields Same Heavy Hand, New York Times. "Elected as a transformative leader who would propel the country forward, Nayib Bukele is now reminding critics of the country’s past autocrats, with his reliance on the military."

El Salvador’s Two Pandemics: Maximum Insecurity -- Jorge Cuellar in ReVista.  "COVID-19 has enabled the Salvadoran government to advance its strategy of total security and to field-test techniques of surveillance and social control. The recent increase in gang-related homicides has made it possible to convince the public about the indispensable urgency and necessity of these security measures, guaranteeing that stricter enforcement techniques are the vaccine to what is, in effect, a protracted structural crisis. Whether it expresses itself as repression against prisoners or in illegal arrests of citizens who violate quarantine, punitive control mechanisms are a dominant feature of Bukele’s narrow, short-sighted and naïve sense of law and order."

Who's Afraid of Coronavirus? -- Carlos Dada. "The alarmist messages that come out of the president’s mouth or Twitter are immediately reproduced by his propagandists on social networks and have been successful: a large part of the population is panicking. This panic has passed from social networks to neighborhood or community meetings. And it is beginning to have serious repercussions."



Comments

Unknown said…
I disagree with this article because our president is doing a good job in our country stop spreading fake news about our country and do not speaking for everybody.
Unknown said…
I disagree with this article because our president is doing a good job in our country stop spreading fake news about our country and do not speak for everybody.
Unknown said…
It's interesting that his approval rating of how he has handled the pandemic in addition to how he has fought corruption as well as curved gang violence is above 80% according to local polls. To be clear you have to live here to notice the positive changes occuring in El Salvador today compared to the last 30 years. The press needs someone to point finger at and now they want to call him a dictator for wanting to save as many lives as possible. We have not seen a president this devoted to the people in decades so he keep slandering and we'll continue to support him.
Unknown said…
Nayib bukele is a danger to El salvadorian and to the region we need help getting rif of him he was a wolf's in sheeps clothes he has destroyed El salvador in a year or so
Unknown said…
Bukele social media devotion lets him control public opinion like the Chinese Communist Party does, look here in your blog, you got a couple of Wumao
Unknown said…
As an American woman living here for 5 years I see a difference that makes this article show fake news. I have seen a major difference in gang violence. As a single woman living in a campo I can walk without fear. I have watched this president cry while talking about COVID19. I have seen a president show concern without blaming others. I have seen a president that shows above all care for his police and front line people fighting. Imangine if the US president showed even a small percent of this. Look at that country right now.









Unknown said…
Fake news, whoever wrote this is badly misinformed or promoting biased information.
Unknown said…
Who paid you to write so much fake news? President Bukele had to put pressure on the old guard of politicians to finance the security forces because of the war on the terrorist gangs. Norman Quijano ex chairman of the National Assembly , caughgt on videos negotiationing and financing the terrorist gangs. Review the country's Attorney General when he tweeted his dismay last week when ARENA voted to give the ex chairman of the Assembly immunity for negotiations with terrorists. Where is the criticism for the 10s of thousands decapitated and disappeared victims who ARENA and FMLN both financed?
Usuluteco said…
Bukele is doing an excellent job. He's looking out for his people instead of worrying about his international reputation. There's a reason he is beloved by the common man in a way that none of his predecessors were.
Unknown said…
The article is spot on. The whole world is witnessing his and his cabinet's inexperience and improvisation and their poor decision making that has caused more deaths.
People that still support him will hopefully open their eyes and face the reality sooner or later that's he's actually worse than previous presidents. The nepotism in his government is shameful.
Is there is Some one who is really Firing
COVID-19. is Nayib Bukele.
I really Hope Others do the same
And is to put Health over Economy.
My Appreciation For all he has done for El Salvador.