The World Is Finally Seeing How Dangerous President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador Really Is

8 comments

1. The so-called Bukele model of national security is built on thousands of cases like that of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran immigrant who was [improperly expelled](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/us/politics/trump-abrego-garcia-bukele-el-salvador.html) to El Salvador in March. In 2022, Mr. Bukele declared a state of exception — still in effect — to weaken the country’s powerful gangs and lower the soaring crime and murder rate.

   It has also eroded Salvadorans’ constitutional rights, and thousands of people with no criminal records have been arrested in a sweeping operation that eventually dismantled the gangs’ territorial control and drastically reduced homicides. Since the state of exception began, around [80,000 people](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/world/americas/el-salvador-prisons-disappearances.html) have been arrested and imprisoned in El Salvador. Mr. Bukele admitted last year that [8,000 innocent people](https://www.barrons.com/news/salvadoran-president-says-8-000-innocents-freed-in-war-on-gangs-c410e0af) were arrested and released in the sweep, but civil society groups say the number is [much higher](https://www.dw.com/es/el-salvador-estudia-liberaci%C3%B3n-de-150-detenidos-arbitrariamente/a-71218419).

2. Now Mr. Bukele’s transgressions are no longer confined to El Salvador’s borders. He’s mocked U.S. court orders and trolled American [politicians](https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1913028548001923259). “[Oopsie … Too late](https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1901238762614517965),” he quipped on X after a judge ordered a halt to the first deportation flights of Venezuelans to El Salvador. He also recently [published pictures](https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1913028548001923259) of Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland visiting Mr. Abrego Garcia in a Salvadoran prison, saying the two sipped margaritas during their meeting. Mr. Van Hollen said that the drinks on the table had been placed there and that neither he nor Mr. Abrego Garcia had drunk them.

   The Trump administration has reportedly agreed to pay El Salvador [$6 million](https://apnews.com/article/trump-deportations-salvador-tren-aragua-64e72142a171ea57c869c3b35eeecce7) for the deportees to be sent to Salvadoran prisons. Mr. Bukele said the money would help make the country’s prison system, which he says costs [$200 million a year](https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1901245427216978290), self-sustainable. Besides the money, it’s unclear what El Salvador gets from becoming a global punchline and a place of punishment in American politics. The country is not exempt from Mr. Trump’s tariffs, nor has he introduced any immigration relief measures for Salvadorans.

3. The reason why Bukele is popular is because of the results he brought. He reduced the levels of crime and made El Salvador a significantly safer place to live. I’m not saying his policies were perfect or morally upstanding. They were far from that, but if you want to understand why he did what he did, why he’s popular, and how he got re-elected with most of the country voting for him, you can’t ignore that.

   To bring up a quote from the article “They exchanged theoretical rights — like due process — for immediate results, like personal safety.”. That so many El Salvadorians were willing to accept that says a lot about how broken the country was when Bukele came to power.

4. Well..
   I am glad that crime has decreased in El Salvador.
   I think he is doing a good job.

5. He has fundamentally guaranteed the failure of his system by allying with trump. Emergency autocracies Can only work (even then they rarely do) if they can leverage the temporary peace for economic growth. If nayib bukele fails to grow the economy by the time the people he imprisoned get out then they will just go back to crime. By pissing off most of the world he has made sure he doesn’t get the investment he so desperately needs.

   Generally the international community of that still exists only ignores “enlightened dictators” like kagame and bukele because they are better than the alternative. As long as they don’t cause trouble outside of their borders people don’t care ( I know m23 existed long before their was any real callout none of the big players cared) but by allying with trump bukele has made it the world’s problem.

6. I don’t know what the purpose of a government is, if not to provide security and imprison criminals.

   London is ripe with theft now. Like a third world country. I can’t even take my phone out.

   Being in a place like Dubai, with 0 crime is such a mental unburdening. You can relax, forget your bag, go back and get it later. No worry.

   If El Salvador can become low-crime. That’s amazing

7. The interesting thing to me is that of the “three branches of govt” theory, only one is elected and across Western style govts all “three branches” results in is inaction, delay, unaccountable power and hidden agendas enforced by those hidden from view and accountability. It’s fundamentally anti democratic and it generates a sly authoritarianism of elite civil servants and judges. It has failed the people it is supposed to protect.

8. Things are always relative. El Salvador’s gang situation had reached a crisis point where people valued results above due process and were arguably rational to do so. Its a very different situation in any developed country…

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