Does not tolerate criticism: El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele
Image: AFP
President Nayib Bukele has drastically reduced the rampant violence in El Salvador. For this he put tens of thousands in prison. He doesn't tolerate criticism. He is certain of re-election on Sunday.
In the Las Margaritas market hall, the last shoppers are browsing between the stalls. The prices are juicier than the fruits. Inflation is also being felt in El Salvador, particularly hitting the poor who live in this outskirts of Soyapango, a huge suburb of San Salvador. But poverty and inflation are small problems compared to what was going on in Las Margaritas until a few years ago.
The huge settlement of modest houses was until recently a stronghold of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), one of the major gangs that once made El Salvador the deadliest country in Latin America. They murdered, blackmailed, robbed and raped. Large parts of the cities were under their control. The territorial battle with other gangs claimed thousands of deaths every year and drove the murder rate in the country, which has around 6.6 million inhabitants, to alarming heights.
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