Nayib Bukele could now rule El Salvador for life His supermajority in the legislative assembly has removed the constitutional barriers to unlimited re-election

13 comments

1. no paywall: https://archive.ph/nLv2m

   pertinent info from the article:

   >But recently Mr Bukele has turned on softer targets, too. His crackdown has expanded beyond alleged criminals to include human-rights defenders, journalists and lawyers. In May, Mr Bukele’s goons jailed Ruth López, a well-known anti-corruption lawyer. Days later, lawmakers passed a “foreign agents” law requiring people or organisations receiving money from abroad to apply to the government for permission to do so and to pay a 30% tax on it. (Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, did something similar in his country in 2012.) In May and June, several journalists from El Faro, an investigative outlet, fled the country after Mr Bukele’s attorney-general prepared arrest warrants for them. And on July 17th, Cristosal, a prominent human-rights NGO which employs Ms López, shut its offices in El Salvador, citing threats to the safety of its staff.

2. oh my goodness, how could anyone have predicted this /s

   it’s not like he’s a comically evil dictator archetype and super tech bro

3. A populist rightwinger looking to rule forever? Say it isn’t so! 

4. Wow! A man who explicitly called himself a dictator and built a super mega torture prison is gonna cement his power permanently and then use said prison to hold and torture dissidents? Who could have predicted?????

5. Huh sounds like a candidate for regime change when the next Democrat takes office. Gotta punish the fascist collaborators to dissuade further ones.

6. People are stupid. All this type of dictatorship does is it sets up a Communist dictatorship. Like in Cuba, like in Venezuela, like in so many countries. Coming soon to the USA.

7. I’m sure that’s been part of the plan. When we find out what he and MS-13 are getting away with behind the scenes amidst his rule it’s going to be disgusting. Really cool that the US is so buddy buddy with such great people. Again.

8. Good news, I read about a solution that tends to work well for these dictator for life types.

9. Well Netanyahu has been Israel’s leader for how long? And Israel is always touted as a democracy. Not to mention other cases in the western world. The fact that he can stay in power for an unlimited time, in itself, means nothing.

10. Bukele, Trump, Orbán, et.al… are all bleak reminders that democracy is fragile. It takes constant effort to maintain. Fascists rarely storm the gates; they chip away at the edges until the whole thing collapses. Stay vigilant. They don’t always wear jackboots.

11. Good. He’s been one of the few successful leaders in the Americas, and has truly transformed his nation from one of the world’s murder capitals into a safe place.

    People seem to see the word dictator and immediately imagine some genocidal maniac. Better yet, he is still elected in the first place, and has done more good for his nation than those who have been elected multiple times in other nations (you all know who I’m talking about)

    If Bukele can continue make his country a better place, let him. Better than forcing him out just so some corrupt politician can get in and ruin things once more.

12. Bukele’s poised to turn El Salvador into Latin America’s Singapore. Seems good to me. They voted for him and as all polls from over there show, they love him and his reforms. That his administration isn’t as “democratic” in the way we think of that term clearly isn’t offputting.

13. And watch as the US says nothing of this while attacking Brazil for prosecuting Bolsonaro for conspiracy to murder and planning a coup. Americans love dictatorships when it’s convenient for them.

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