EL SALVADOR
The dictatorship of Nayib Bukele
The country is the model of the dictatorship that the bourgeoisie wants for other Latin American countries
Nayib Bukele’s government in El Salvador has established itself as one of the most fascist dictatorships in Latin America, characterized by absolute control of state powers, systematic repression of the press and political persecution. Since 2019, when Bukele took over the presidency with a wide electoral victory. In 2024, a constitutional reform approved indefinite re-election, allowing Bukele to maintain control without clear legal limits. This authoritarianism materializes in human rights violations, illegal spying on journalists – as revealed in the case of the El Faro, reporters forced into exile after allegations of spying with the Pegasus malware – and mass arrests in response to the conflict with criminal gangs, without guaranteeing the right to due process of law.
Bukele maintains ambiguous relations with the gangs, having negotiated agreements that have allowed immediate results in the reduction of homicides. The regime’s response to breaking these pacts was to establish a state of exception with mass incarceration – around 2.6% of the prison population, one of the highest rates on the planet – and hundreds of deaths in state custody, setting up a punitive prison system with torture-like characteristics. Repression goes beyond fighting crime, targeting any form of dissent, including political opposition, human rights activists and organized civil society. Many of these people were forced into exile.
However, the state repression applied by Bukele does not resolve the root causes of crime in El Salvador, which are essentially social and economic. Violence and organized crime are symptoms of structural inequality, unemployment, poverty and lack of opportunities, problems that the capitalist system maintains and exacerbates.
