El Salvador Perspectives

  Nayib Bukele was one of the Latin American leaders who accepted Donald Trump’s invitation to attend an inaugural meeting of the “Shield of the Americas” at the Trump-owned Doral golf course in Miami.    It was a convening of a dozen politically-aligned, conservative led countries in the Americas, saying they would work together to combat drug trafficking. Trump has had a focus on drug cartels and gangs in Latin America as a justification for many of his actions in the region including the capture of Maduro in Venezuela, blowing boats out of the water off the coast of South America, and closing US borders to asylum seekers.   Trump want his allies in the region to permit the US military, and their own militaries, to act freely in pursuit of those who get labelled narco-terrorists Al Jazeera reported : But as he signed a declaration to cement that commitment, Trump signalled that it came with the expectation that cartels would not be confronted with law enforce...

San Salvador fire A collection of recent news from El Salvador. Fire in San Salvador Claims Five Lives in Historic District Blaze  (Tico Times, Feb. 14, 2026) -- A major fire in the historic center of San Salvador killed five as it tore through warehouse space, business and residences.  The burned-out block is two blocks south of Plaza Libertad, part of the zone gradually being gentrified into a tourist destination by the current government. ( More at EDH ).  Shakira’s 5-show El Salvador residency fuels Bukele’s push to remake the country’s image  (AP, Feb. 13, 2026) -- A five-concert “residency” by singer-songwriter and superstar Shakira in El Salvador’s capital builds on Nayib Bukele ’s years long effort to use events such as surfing competitions and the Miss Universe pageant to mold the Central American country’s international image as a safe tourist destination. Trump to host Latin American leaders in Miami on March 7 (AFP, Feb. 12, 2026) -- Donald Trump wi...

Over the last month, Nayib Bukele has been attributing public security in El Salvador to either mass incarceration or a miracle from God for those who pray. Presidential Visit to Costa Rica Bukele traveled to Alajuela, Costa Rica, on January 14 to join President Rodrigo Chaves for the groundbreaking for a new prison.  The month before, in December 2025, Chaves had visited the CECOT prison in El Salvador to see Bukele's most famous incarceration site. Bukele laid the first stone in the groundbreaking ceremony for Costa Rica's new "Centro de Alta Contención del Crimen Organizado" (CACCO), a maximum-security prison. Bukele has said that El Salvador sent the CECOT  architectural plans to Chaves so the new prison could use them as a model. In remarks at the groundbreaking for CACCO, Bukele told those assembled that the only way to resolve a nation's crime problem was through the use of force.   The trip came three weeks before presidential elections in Costa Rica....

On November 2, Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele broadcast an address to the nation to announce that his administration was inaugurating 70 remodeled schools that day. The upgrades to the schools were part of Bukele's "Two Schools Per Day Plan" in which the government says it is commencing the upgrades of two new schools each day, 70 of which have now been finished. Inauguration of 70 schools Inauguración de 70 escuelas pic.twitter.com/Lj5sfrUn4C — Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) November 3, 2025 The announcement came with the usual production values of a hallmark Bukele presentation -- the delivery of some new infrastructure project or building, and the Salvadoran president receiving a tour and the adulation of the citizens gathered for the event. [Fact checkers at VozPublica highlighted several misrepresentations in Bukele's presentation regarding the number of schools built by his administration (overstated), the number of schools built by prior governments (u...

The March 15, 2025, US deportation flights, which brought hundreds of Venezuelans and a few dozen Salvadorans to El Salvador's CECOT prison, continue to be in the news.  The Washington Post disclosed more details about the deal between Washington and Bukele, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio's promise to undo agreements with cooperating witnesses from MS-13 who were ready to testify about bargains between the Salvadoran government and the gang.   Rubio promised to betray U.S. informants to get Trump’s El Salvador prison deal  (Washington Post, Oct. 20, 2025) --  "in promising to terminate the informant arrangements, current and former Justice Department officials say Rubio threatened to undercut years of work by U.S. law enforcement to apprehend and secure the cooperation of high-ranking members of one of the world’s most deadly gangs." Rubio's deal had its origins in earlier dealings with El Salvador led by then-ambassador Ron Johnson:  An American ...

One of the defining features of Nayib Bukele's presidency is spectacle.   From displays of military hardware to fireworks and choreographed light shows, his government does not miss a chance to put on a show for the Salvadoran public.  And these spectacles are never produced just for the audience in attendance.  A mini-army of camera people, drone operators, live-streamers and producers choreograph and document every event, and then push it out through every social media channel available.  The refined art of spectacle was on display for El Salvador's Independence Day celebrations on September 15. During the day, the main event was a parade through the streets of San Salvador.  In recent years, the Independence Day parade has actually been two parades -- one is a "civic" parade filled with uniformed school children stepping in unison down the streets, marching bands, folk dancers and other displays of civic pride in which the national blue and white col...

Two opinion polls released in June show president Nayib Bukele continuing to receive high approval ratings from large swaths of the Salvadoran public.  A poll released by La Prensa Grafica , one of the country's major newspapers, reported that 85.2% of the public approve of Bukele's performance in office after six years in the presidency.  A second poll released by the Institute of Public Opinion at the UCA reported that respondents gave  him an average grade of 8.15 on a 0-10 scale for his presidency. Bukele's ratings have ranged between 8.7 and 8.15 in the last 5 years of polls by the UCA. These  latest polls are consistent, and not surprising, in finding that respondents praise the improved public security situation as Bukele's greatest achievement, and point to economic issues as his biggest challenge. The Legislative Assembly and local municipal governments, however, had approval ratings quite a bit below the ratings of Bukele, despite being controlled almost e...

Nayib Bukele has just had another of his critics arrested.  The government of El Salvador Saturday detained prominent attorney Enrique Anaya.  The constitutional lawyer frequently spoke in public and wrote on social media, about the constitution and the rule of law in El Salvador.  He has been an outspoken critic of Nayib Bukele's capture of the judicial system in El Salvador and violations of the constitution. Anaya is purportedly being charged with money laundering, and his detention follows closely on the heels of the imprisonment of another prominent legal critic of Bukele, Ruth López . In the week before his arrest, Anaya had been vocal critic of Bukele.  On June 3 Anaya was on  Frente a Frente , a television interview show  in El Salvador, saying Bukele was a dictator who had removed "the mask," adding "he is what he is." "Here, whoever speaks, whoever criticizes, whoever does not kneel before the idol, gets imprisoned. Of course, I am afrai...

On June 1, Nayib Bukele delivered a speech to the nation from the National Theater in San Salvador, on the first anniversary of commencing his unconstitutional second term as president.  In a large portion of his address, Bukele described sinister globalist forces who want to thwart his project and return El Salvador to a time of gang-controlled misery.    Early in the speech he stated: They gave us studies, grand projects on how to save us, but deep down, they never believed it was possible, and that's why their solutions were never designed to work. El Salvador was controlled by people with no intention of helping us. Six years ago, we merely began to reclaim our country. Today, El Salvador no longer belongs to foreign actors or their local puppets. Today, El Salvador belongs to the Salvadoran people. Bukele declared that he would never give in to calls by human rights organizations or international media to lift the State of Exception:   Me, personally, they...

After Nayib Bukele's offer to be Donald Trump's jailer for hire, there is a changing story about El Salvador being told in global media.  Bukele the image-maker is now having a toug her time controlling the narrative.  There is growing recognition that, behind the veneer of surfing and Bitcoin and tourism growth, exists a regime which is increasingly authoritarian, imprisons tens of thousands without trial or due process in incredibly harsh conditions, and actively represses journalists, human rights lawyers and community activists. With this loss of control of El Salvador's story-line, Bukele may be regretting the deal he made with Donald Trump and Marco Rubio. When Bukele shared the slick, but brutal, videos of Venezuelan men being dragged into CECOT,  the world's focus shifted from sun-soaked beaches being enjoyed by Bitcoiners to overcrowded Salvadoran prisons.  Journalists asked not just about the show prison called CECOT, but also about conditions in other...

The arrest of a prominent anti-corruption lawyer in El Salvador is highlighting the increased willingness of Nayib Bukele's government to arrest and imprison critics of the regime’s practices. Late Sunday night authorities arrested Salvadoran lawyer Ruth López at her home.  She is the head of the Anti-corruption and Justice unit at Cristosal, the most prominent Salvadoran human rights organization.  Both López and Cristosal have been outspoken critics of the Bukele government for its human rights record and patterns of corruption. The seizure of López comes at a moment when the Bukele regime is taking increasingly hard-line measures against its critics. Other activists and human rights defenders have also been imprisoned this year when they have been defending populations impacted by Salvadoran government policies.  López's is the highest profile arrest yet.  It illustrates that Bukele now feels he can take such actions with impunity. The arrest occurred in ...