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In El Salvador, a state of emergency declared in March is still in effect due to widespread gang violence. President Nayib Bukele declared war on criminal gangs, suspending constitutional rights in the process. Nearly 60,000 people have been arrested since March. Although this repression has the support of the majority of the population, it has been strongly criticized by human rights defenders.
Several foreign governments and the United Nations have criticized the excesses, decisions and authoritarian attitudes of Bukele, who since March has controlled all the political and judicial bodies of the nation of 6.5 million inhabitants. In response, many Salvadorans reply: “If he is a dictator, he is undoubtedly the best dictator in the world.”
Before Bukele took power in 2019, El Salvador had lived for more than 20 years in fear of the Maras, the ultraviolent criminal gangs that ranked the country among the three most dangerous nations in the world for most of the 2010s. .
On September 15, Bukele announced that he would run for re-election in the 2024 general elections: in addition to electing the president, Salvadorans will vote for a new Legislative Assembly and 262 mayors.
The country’s constitution prohibits two consecutive presidential terms, but Bukele can count on the support of the Supreme Court in particular to run again. In May 2021 he changed his composition to his liking by removing five judges and the attorney general.
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