WP2: Exploring the Frontiers of Our Knowledge
The Rise of Nayib Bukele: El Salvador’s 43rd President
Part 1:
Blitzer, Jonathan. “The Rise of Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s Authoritarian President.” The New Yorker, 5 Sep. 2022, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/09/12/the-rise-of-nayib-bukele-el-salvadors-authoritarian-president.
From his background to the history of corrupt presidents that came before him, Blitzer takes us through Bukele’s journey to becoming president. He describes how Bukele began negotiating with the gangs as soon as he became president and how from the start he created change. The article also goes into the international critique Bukele got, especially from the US government, but how he was focused on transforming El Salvador through his own ways.
Enríquez, Ximena. “Will El Salvador 's Nayib Bukele Be the Next Social Media President?” Americas Quarterly, 8 Nov. 2018, www.americasquarterly.org/article/will-el-salvadors-nayib-bukele-be-the-next-social-media-president/.
Enriquez talks about Bukele’s social media strategy. She implies how he has been able to encompass a large audience through posts that seem “cool” to younger people. She also explains how Bukele’s rebranding of his political campaign was facilitated because of his social media presence and considers the idea that most of his political success was partly caused by it.
Feierstein, Mark, et al. “El Salvador’s Bukele: From ‘World’s Coolest Dictator’ to ‘Philosopher King.’” United States Institute of Peace, 8 Feb. 2024, www.usip.org/ publications/2024/02/el-salvadors-bukele-worlds-coolest-dictator-philosopher-king.
Freeman, Will, and Lucas Perelló. “The Drop in Crime in El Salvador Is Stunning, but It Has a Dark Side.” The New York Times, 8 Feb. 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/ opinion/el-salvador-bukele-election.html.
Freeman questions Bukele’s extreme measures and explains how his approach has gained attention from other Latin American countries. He explains how their attempt to emulate him could have negative outcomes such as increased authoritarianism and decreased civil liberties. He also infers that since the conditions aren’t the same, other leaders may just replicate the oppressive tactics without achieving decreased crime.
Galeas, Geovani. “¿Quién Es Nayib Bukele?” 1st ed, Geovani Galeas, 2018.
Hilary, Goodfriend. “El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele Committed Blatant Election Fraud.” Jacobin, 20 Feb. 2023, https://jacobin.com/2024/02/nayib-bukele-el-salvador-election-fraud.
Moran, Jon. “Crime and Corruption in New Democracies: The Politics of (In)Security.” Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, pp. 120–30.
Nayib, Bukele. “El Salvador - President Addresses General Debate, 78th Session.” United Nations, 19 Sep 2023, https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1x/k1x9x9qh1o.
President Bukele addresses the UN and highlights El Salvador’s transformation from the world’s murder capital to the safest country in Latin America. He critiques past foreign influences in El Salvador and asserts that countries should be courageous and make their own decisions. Ultimately, he says El Salvador exemplifies what all countries can achieve when they start to claim their sovereignty.
Nilsson, Martin. “Nayib Bukele: Populism and Autocratization, or a Very Popular Democratically Elected President?” Journal of Geography, Politics and Society, vol. 12, no. 2, 2022, pp. 16–26, https://doi.org/10.26881/jpgs.2022.2.03.
Nilsson analyzes to what extent Bukele’s presidency is a case of populism and if it has contributed to any negative democratic development. He concludes that he has shown many actions and signs of populism such as hijacking the state, mass clientelism, and decrease in free media. As a result, Nilsson believes that Bukele has made the country’s democracy uncertain.
Osgood, Brian. “Could El Salvador’s Gang Crackdown Spread across Latin America?” Al Jazeera, 7 Aug. 2023, www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/7/could-el-salvadors-gang-crackdown-spread-across-latin-america.
Papadovassilakis, Alex. “‘Too Many Soldiers’: How Bukele’s Crackdown Succeeded Where Others Failed.” InSight Crime, 6 Dec. 2023, https://insightcrime.org/ investigations/too-many-soldiers -how-bukele-crackdown-succeeded-where-others-failed/.
Papadovassilakis gives a detailed description of the 20 month state of emergency and how it helped crack down MS13 and Barrio 18. He goes over the different legal measures Bukele’s administration employed such as the suspension of constitutional rights and concentration of power. Ultimately, he concludes that these measures freed many from gang control and extortion, but challenges still remain.
Perelló, Lucas, and Navia, Patricio. “The Disruption of an Institutionalised and Polarised Party System: Discontent with Democracy and the Rise of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador.” Politics, vol. 42, no. 3, Feb. 2022, https://doi.org/10.1177/02633957221077181.
The article looks into Bukele’s 2019 presidential victory and describes how most of his support was motivated by the ideological divides between traditional parties and by critical views of democracy in El Salvador. As a result, Perello and Navia conclude that even in the face of strong ideological divisions among the front-runners, a major upheaval in an institutionalized party system can occur.
Priou, Maxime. “Arte Reportage - El Salvador: The Coolest Dictator in the World?” ARTE, Mar. 2023, www.arte.tv/en/videos/111427-000-A/arte-reportage/.
The documentary dives into Bukele’s state of emergency and interviews people such as a former cop, a journalist, and families who believe it’s extreme and undemocratic since it imprisons many innocent people and limits their human rights. Overall, this documentary challenges the immense support that Bukele has had by giving a voice to these silenced people who suffered from his systems.
Ruiz-Alba, Noelia, and Rosalba Mancinas-Chávez. “The Communications Strategy via Twitter of Nayib Bukele: The Millennial President of El Salvador.” Communication & Society, vol. 33, no. 2, 2020, pp. 259–273, https://doi.org/10.15581/003.33.2.259-275.
Ruiz-Alba believes that Bukele’s communication strategy on Twitter has attracted lots of international attention because of his humor, spectacularism and unique way of tweeting direct orders to his governmental team. In her article she analyzes many of Bukele’s past tweets and concludes that his main goal has been to change the image that the international community has of El Salvador.
Snider, Julie. “The Price of El Salvador’s War on Gangs.” YouTube, uploaded by Bloomberg Originals, 2 Feb 2024, www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtLiQnXC7sQ.
The video summarizes the transformation of El Salvador after Bukele came to power and explains the system that he has put in place. It also portrays different perspectives on “trading freedom for security” and how some argue that this increased security is necessary to defeat gangs while others believe that it’s excessive since authorities should be respected, not feared.
Stelmach, Michał. “Public Security Policy in El Salvador During the Presidency of Nayib Bukele (2017–2019).” Anuario Latinoamericano : Ciencias Poĺiticas y Relaciones Internacionales, vol. 12, 2022, pp. 65–85, https://doi.org/10.17951/al.2021.12.65-85.
Tharoor, Ishaan. “Analysis | the Inescapable Appeal of the World’s ‘Coolest Dictator.’” Washington Post, 6 Feb. 2024, www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/ 06/bukelenayib-el-salvador-president -coolest-dictator-global-international/.
Vásquez, Aguilar, and Eduardo, Luis. “Nayib Bukele, El Bukelismo y El Uso de La Religión.” Realidad y Reflexión, vol. 1, 2022, pp. 124–164, https://doi.org/10.5377/ryr.v1i55.14429.
Vasquez describes the significance of religion in Bukele’s rise to presidency. She gives examples of how Bukele uses images, rituals and expressions of religion such as: prayer, the use of divine references or calling himself an “instrument of God”, to attract the attention of citizens and to give them hope. She also explains how religion helps empower the country’s democracy.
Ventas, Leire. “Coming Face to Face with Inmates in El Salvador’s Mega-Jail.” Www.bbc.com, 15 Feb. 2024, www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-68244963.
Ventas talks about the new Cecot prison built in El Salvador. She explains that it has gained lots of attention, not just because it's the largest prison in Latin America, but because of its harsh conditions which she saw first hand on her tour. However, Ventas emphasizes that these conditions are necessary so people can finally stop living in fear.
Wade, Christine J. Captured Peace: Elites and Peacebuilding in El Salvador. Ohio University Press, 2016.
Part 2:
Being from Ecuador, the name Bukele is one which I’ve been hearing a lot. Especially due to the recent gang uprisings, many Ecuadorians have become fans of Bukele and his measures, as they believe they could help reduce crime rates in Ecuador just like they did in El Salvador. As a result, I decided to do some research on Bukele’s measures and how he became so successful.
I started by watching different youtube videos and documentaries that gave an overall summary of the situation El Salvador was in and how Bukele was able to transform it. Most of what I found had to do with how during his presidency, Bukele used extreme measures to fight MS 13, Barrio 18 and other gangs in El Salvador. Although I knew that these tactics were somewhat harsh, what I found was much more intense than I expected. For example, the state of exception was something I had no idea about, so I was very surprised to see how the government of El Salvador implemented the idea of going on a complete shutdown and arresting as many people as possible. I knew the situation in the country was pretty bad, but somehow watching the videos of thousands of gang members being arrested was so unreal to me.
As I started researching more, I found out even more reasons as to why people loved Bukele so much and why he was so famous in other Latin American countries. The main source that made me realize how impactful he is was the speech he gave at the United Nations. The way he talked about how he completely transformed El Salvador from the “world’s murder capital” to the “safest country” in Latin America was crazy to think about since for so long I associated El Salvador with gangs and danger when at the moment, Ecuador is way more dangerous. Because of all this research I even ended up getting edits of Bukele on my TikTok with thousands of comments talking about how great he is which is unusual since politicians mostly get hated on social media.
As a result of me getting him on my TikTok, I decided to dive into other platforms where he had a presence. This is where I found his twitter where I became very invested in what he posted and how people replied. So when I began researching different articles on USC libraries and google, I chose to focus on some of the ones which talked about Bukele’s social media presence and how his strategies in these platforms have aided his success which I believed was very interesting since he’s so popular around the world.
However, after going even deeper into my research of Bukele and El Salvador, I began finding more sources that were against him. This was what ended up being the most surprising and interesting part to me since I had mostly heard people think highly of him. I found different news articles, videos, and documentaries, all of which talked about how Bukele’s measures were way too extreme. Although I had researched his tactics at first, those sources mainly focused on all the good that his system did, while these other sources also gave light to the people being negatively affected. From limiting civil liberties and disregarding human rights to putting thousands of innocent people in jail and making people fear rather than respect authorities, these articles and videos were the ones that intrigued me the most since they gave me the full story.
Although I do believe that these measures were and still could be very successful, I still think that the consequences that they have should be considered, especially because of how extreme and oppressive they can get. Which is why other countries in Latin America like Ecuador, should try to look at the pros and cons of Bukele’s model instead of jumping to the conclusion that since it worked in one place, it'll also work in the other. As for where I want to go with all this information, I’m not sure but I do believe I would like to either do an informative essay or even a policy brief where I look at the Bukele model and analyze how they could be improved and adapted to other countries like Ecuador. I believe either of these two will best serve my communicative needs by giving me a formal space to formulate my arguments as to what could be changed about the tactics and what could be kept.