America should rein him in, but will not
president of El Salvador last year, Nayib Bukele promised change. A millennial who knows that a selfie is worth 1,000 words, he broke the grip of the two parties that had governed since the end of a civil war in 1992. On their watch El Salvador’s murder rate became the world’s highest and Salvadoreans left the country in droves. Three of the past four presidents have been charged with corruption. “You bastards, return what’s been stolen!” Mr Bukele demanded before the election.
He exemplifies a worrying trend. Until recently democracy seemed established in most of Latin America. The main exceptions were three countries ruled by leftist despots: Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Now some democracies are wobbling. Honduras’s president, Juan Orlando Hernández, engineered the abolition of a presidential term limit and in 2017 was re-elected in a flawed vote.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the state cannot detain people without a law to back it up. Mr Bukele has defied it. “Five people are not going to decide the death of hundreds of thousands of Salvadoreans,” he tweeted. Security forces took his orders to enforce his lockdown, issued via Twitter, as lawful commands.
So far, Mr Bukele has paid no price for his brutishness. Citizens believe he is trying to protect them. Nearly 80% approve of his handling of the pandemic. In an election due next February, his New Ideas party will probably gain control of the legislature.
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