The overwhelming victory of Nayib Bukele, 42, in the presidential elections this Sunday in El Salvador, won with a percentage that is close to 85% and a completely broken opposition, is a warning for all of Latin America.
The politician who one day defined himself as “the coolest dictator in the world” will repeat his term thanks to the immense popularity obtained through the dismantling of the maras, the bloodthirsty gangs that terrorized the small Central American country, which has allowed for a drastic reduction in crime and violence in the streets.
The homicide rate - it went from more than 106 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015 to 7.8 in 2022 - and extortion have plummeted.
To achieve this, Bukele has imposed a regime of exception that already seems inherent to his mandate, co-opted the judiciary (which allowed him to run again despite the Constitution vetoing it), trampled on human rights and harassed those media and activists who They do not agree with their security policy.
Under these conditions, El Salvador has not only become the country with the highest incarceration rate in the world (prisoners have gone from 35,000 to 110,000 during his presidency), but also a nation where the drift towards authoritarianism is increasingly evident. .
These are dangers that the electoral victory, whose forcefulness is incontestable, does not erase.
On the contrary, Bukele's success at the polls has elevated him to a beacon of the Latin American extreme right.
From Chile to Mexico voices are heard asking to follow his example to conquer power.
It is an attractive and easy speech, which offers a supposedly quick solution to one of the great continental scourges, although in reality it neither ends the problems of misery and lack of opportunities that are at the origin of crime nor are its methods acceptable to anyone. full democracy unless one is willing to enter a permanent state of exception.
Another very worrying sign is the attacks on voices critical of the Bukele Government.
The mockery of his adversaries, the attacks against international bodies and the harassment of the media that do not agree with his ideology were already the daily tone of the last term.
On Sunday, the president-elect exhibited his intolerance in the middle of his victory speech, dedicating three minutes to attacking EL PAÍS.
An attitude that demonstrates his very little resistance to questions from the independent press.
Given this deterioration of democratic coexistence, it is necessary for the international community to maintain and increase pressure on Bukele.
Only the denunciation of abuses by independent organizations and the surveillance of the great democracies can stop the drift that El Salvador is experiencing.
It is necessary, on the other hand, for the opposition parties, whose poor results speak for themselves, to break with corruption and become formations capable of attracting the electorate with credible solutions.
El Salvador, after decades of violence and mismanagement, is going to begin a second Bukele presidency without having resolved its serious problems of backwardness and inequality.
His economic policy, which presents El Salvador as the paradise of cryptocurrencies, has failed to the point that extreme poverty has increased (it has gone from 5.6% to 8.7%, according to the most recent report from ECLAC).
Meeting these challenges requires much more than resuming indiscriminate raids.
Filling prisons should never be the end of a state policy;
fight poverty, improve education and reduce inequality, yes.