What El Salvador's Bukele, a hero for the American right, isn't showing the world

[Judi Lynn]

By Kate Linthicum
Staff Writer
May 18, 2025 3 AM PT

President Nayib Bukele’s crackdown on gangs has brought peace to El Salvador, but the price, some Salvadorans say, has been the loss of civil liberties.

“We used to be afraid of the gangs,” says one Salvadoran. “Now we’re afraid of the state.”


APOPA, El Salvador — Victor Barahona was grateful when soldiers started rounding up gang members who had long terrorized this working-class city. No longer would his grandchildren pass drug deals or be startled from sleep by the crack of gunfire.

But when El Salvador’s military started hauling away neighbors Barahona knew had no connection to the gangs, he spoke out, criticizing the arrests on his community radio program.

Soon after, police rapped on his door. Barahona said he was handcuffed and sent to prison, with no access to lawyers, no contact with family and no clear sense of the charges against him.

He recalls seeing inmates being tortured and guards hauling bodies from cells while he lived on meager portions of noodles and beans. He would later lodge a complaint with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

When he was released almost a year later — 70 pounds lighter, and with no explanation — Barahona was alarmed to see that President Nayib Bukele was winning global praise for bringing peace and prosperity to El Salvador, with his iron-fist security strategy heralded by American conservatives such as President Trump.

More:
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2025-05-18/el-salvadors-millennial-dictator-disappeared-thousands-but-quashed-gangs-how-long-will-his-popularity-last

Or:
https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2025-05-18/el-salvadors-millennial-dictator-disappeared-thousands-but-quashed-gangs-how-long-will-his-popularity-last

[sop]

1. Rodrigo Duterte and Nayib Bukele both came to power promising an end to drug-related gang violence.

The Philippines elected former mayor Rodrigo Duterte on a promise of eradicating illegal drugs and crime. El Salvador elected Nayib Bukele, also a former mayor, to crack down on criminal gangs and drugs. Duterte stepped down and is now being probed by the International Criminal Court for human rights violations. Bukele will likely end up like Duterte.