Dismantle Democracy? Salvadorans Think It Would Be Mad Not To
Catherine Barrie
‘Iraq’s liberation was catastrophic’
‘And Sadam’s regime was not?’
‘But at least it worked’
Nayib Bukele is El Salvador’s democratically elected president turned hopeful autocrat. Shrewd and savvy, Bukele understands the subtlety of curating an image, changing his Palestinian rooted name from ‘Najib’ to ‘Nayib’ by one letter to appear more familiar to Salvadorans. He has the dynamism of a corporate leader—a new-wave fascist-type propelled by social media. One may type into Google: ‘Nayib Bukele style’ only to discover the president of El Salvador has a ponytail, sports a Ralph Lauren snapback, dark jeans, a brand matching leather jacket at his campaign rally, and giving the crowd a peace sign. Bukele is unusually frank about his absolutist ambitions and has a sense of humour about it too, tweeting a picture of Sacha Baron Cohen’s character creation ‘The Dictator’ and captioning it #NewProfilePic. In a flippant act that would be political suicide in the West, Bukele is the image of a strongman to the 91% of Salvadorians who support him. What he advocates for, a ban on same sex marriage and abortion for example, is not dissimilar to other political candidates in El Salvador. Democratic power, therefore, seems like an odd sacrifice to make for such conventionally conservative views, but it is not Bukele’s views on these social, religious or moral issues that earn his praise.
This is not populism but a phenomenon born out of social discord and democratic exhaustion; Bukele offers Salvadorans a way out of political wilderness with the promise he will get things done, regardless of popular support. 'We've tried democracy and it failed’, he says. Bukele holds that democracy cannot work in a country suffering an epidemic of violence. Extortion, sex trafficking, homocide are part of daily life in El Salvador. Street killings account for nearly 40% of all murders, which undermines state control and ignites chaos in communities; even police officers wear balaclavas to hide their identity. When four out of ten Salvadorans live in poverty, the appeal of a strong leader is understandable. Such social unrest leads to a political stagnation that cripples the ability to deliberate and compromise. Democracy, in Western terms, is a basic human right. It is given to have the freedom to choose, speak, and change, to have shelter and food are a given, hardly even considered a basic human right but a fact that is presumed and predetermined. This is not the reality in El Salvador. Western nations, like the United States, have expressed contempt at Bukele’s evident power grab, insofar as accusing the Salvadorian leader of corruption and bribery and paying off gangs to contain them. But who cares, if not the democratic West, about a corrupt system if it works? The economic responsibility of Salvadorians, living pay-cheque-to-pay-cheque, precedes the moral obligation to honour a bureaucratic system so disconnected from its people. It is a sacrifice made for the sake of control.
As the West looks on in horror and disbelief that poverty stricken El Salvador, where 20 gang related murders are committed everyday, is choosing to give up its right to freedom, we must remind ourselves that in this violent case, to the Salvadoran people, what matters is that Bukulele’s leadership is satisfactory.
Sources
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/05/07/salv-m07.html
https://www.voanews.com/americas/el-salvador-leader-fights-crime-and-virus-amid-criticism
https://insightcrime.org/investigations/el-salvador-president-bukele-gangs/
https://www.osac.gov/Content/Report/b4884604-977e-49c7-9e4a-1855725d032e\
https://theconversation.com/why-is-el-salvador-so-dangerous-4-essential-reads-89904
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/22/el-salvador-a-nation-held-hostage-a-photo-essay
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-56970026