Can the people with their vote in democratic elections legitimize policies that violate legality or human rights? It is not the first time this has happened in history. The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has no doubt that his overwhelming electoral victory on Sunday supports his controversial actions of the last five years and, furthermore, he believes that he has carte blanche to do whatever he wants in the future .
“In these next five years, wait and see what we are going to do because we will continue doing the impossible and we will continue showing the world the example of El Salvador.” In this way, Bukele closed his victory speech on Sunday night (early morning on Monday in Spain) from the balcony of the National Palace of San Salvador before a passionate crowd that did not stop chanting his name. Then there was a drone show and fireworks, in a party that had already been prepared before the elections took place.
“El Salvador has broken all the records of all democracies in the entire history of the world,” said Bukele, proclaiming himself the winner of the elections with 85% of the votes, before the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) announced the official results. . In fact, the TSE website indicated this Monday night, even with 70% counted, a victory for the president with 83% of the votes, leaving Manuel Flores, candidate of the TSE, in nothing, with almost 7%. leftist FMLN –the former guerrilla–, and Joel Sánchez, from the right-wing Arena, who obtained just over 6% of the votes.
The president also assured that his party, Nuevas Ideas, had obtained “at least” 58 of the 60 deputies of the unicameral National Assembly, despite the fact that the TSE barely offered 5% of the vote on Monday night. “It is possible that it is more,” he stated from the balcony, accompanied only by his wife, Gabriela Rodríguez. “It would be the first time that a single party exists in a country in a fully democratic system,” he said without shame. “The entire opposition together was pulverized,” he added.
There is no doubt about the broad support that Bukele commands among Salvadorans thanks to his successful and controversial security policy, which has drastically reduced crime, almost completely ending violent gangs and organized crime. However, the opposition is sowing suspicion about the cleanliness of the count, alleging defects in the results transmission system.
However, the US yesterday endorsed Bukele's reelection through a congratulation from his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. “The United States praises the work of election observers and looks forward to working with the president-elect,” said Blinken, who, in any case, stated that Washington has among its priorities to observe “the guarantees of fair trials and human rights.”
After achieving the presidency in 2019, it took Bukele two years to control all the levers of power when, after his victory in the 2021 legislative elections, he undertook a purge of the judicial system that has led to a questioned re-reading of the Constitution to be a candidate for a re-election prohibited by the Magna Carta.
He was also able to get Parliament to validate in 2022 his declaration of a state of emergency, which is in effect practically indefinitely, and which has allowed the imprisonment without judicial guarantees of 75,000 alleged gang members in harsh conditions of confinement, many of whom would be innocent. according to human rights organizations. Some of them were arrested just for having tattoos on their bodies. The fact is that the homicide rate in El Salvador went from 103 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015 to 2.4 in 2023.
“We went from being the most insecure country in the world to being the safest country in the entire Western Hemisphere,” Bukele said on Sunday, while explicitly attacking NGOs, international organizations, governments and journalists who question his heavy hand. "And what did they say? It is violating human rights. Whose human rights, honest people? No, perhaps we prioritized the rights of honest people over the rights of criminals, that is the only thing we have done and what you call violating human rights,” said the president. “Why should we and our children die so that you are happy (that) we are respecting your false democracy that not even you yourself respect in your own countries?” Bukele asked.
“We are about to win the war against the gangs,” said Bukele, ensuring that “the gangs grew until they controlled 85% of the national territory and murdered more than a hundred thousand Salvadorans.” And then he appealed to divine justice, not without warning that he would surely receive criticism “for believing in God,” amidst the joy of those in attendance: “What are we but tools of God! God wanted to heal our country and he healed it.”
