Nayib Bukele claims landslide victory and says Spanish democracy is a colonial fraud in impassioned speech to supporters
Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s millennial president, attacked Spanish colonialism and imperialism in a fiery victory speech after he won a landslide victory.
Amid claims he is turning the country into a dictatorship, he boasted to flag-waving crowds below the presidential palace that El Salvador would be the first country with “a one-party system in a democracy”.
“The entire opposition together was pulverised,” Mr Bukele, who once styled himself the “world’s coolest dictator”, told the cheering masses.
The baseball cap-wearing Mr Bukele, 42, has become vastly popular for his war on gangs, but he has also been accused of stifling the courts and silencing opposition.
In his speech he said a Spanish journalist had recently asked him why he wants to dismantle democracy.
I had to find out how accurate that quote was, since everyone who writes about this guy mentions the coolest dictator thing.
He did write that, in Spanish, on his Twitter bio.
“The coolest dictator of the world globally”
“Del mundo mundial” on Spanish is a common phrase (mostly used by children) to say “of the world”. If you want to translate literally, it would be more like “of the worldly world”.
So same sentiment as “in the whole wide world” maybe?
Ppl have no sense of irony anymore.
He was first called dictator, this is his humoristic response. Wake up!
Wake up?
I fully expect to get downvoted for this but as much as im anti-dictator (like any normal person) you cannot deny he has objectively been a good thing for the country so far. He has decimated the gangs which has caused a 70% decrease in the homicide rate, going from the highest in the world to the lowest in Latin America. And him being talked as a “dictator” isnt really accurate either. He was elected Mayor of the capital at fist, was extremely popular so ran for president and won, democratically, in a landslide. And his policies, specifically with that gangs has kept him at a mind-boggling 90% approval rating, making him the most popular leader of any country, and he is running for re-election fairly and democratically, because why would he even need to rig the results when hes so insanely popular?
Yes there is Plenty you can criticise him for (being anti-aborition and anti-gay marriage for example) but in that regard he is no worse than any previous leader of the country.
He’s not a dictator yet, but he’ll have the opportunity to rewrite the constitution with the numbers his party will get in the next election. He seems to have signalled this is what he plans to do. Given his economic policies and the fact that he runs a police state (even if it was temporarily needed to get rid of gangs I doubt it will stop), he looks a lot like Pinochet which gives some people pause.
That said it’s up to the people of El Salvador to decide if it’s worth the risk to hand one party all the power.
Edit: current election not next election
Imagine the opposition was inviting gang leaders to decide what to do with the country.
That’s what happened and it’s documented in video.
Why would anybody vote for them?
Bunch of people in this comment thread have no idea what they are talking about. I have family in various parts of el Salvador and ever since bukele came into office politics is all they fucking talk about. It’s actually quite annoying but the people there absolutely love him and his party. Maybe I am biased as I also have family that hold positions in nuevas ideas. Either way I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a Salvadorean that didn’t love the direction the country is going.
Putin was insanely popular in his country too, same as Kim jong un and bin Salman, they all have 100% approval rate, they most be awesome leaders
Anyone can be insanely popular! Just gotta have an iron grip on the media!
This whole “democracy is colonialism” stuff needs to end lol
Especially since a decent portion of the US democracy was lifted straight out of the Six Nations. They straight up copied the Native Americans in the New England area of the country. Which is why when you look at the Greek version of Democracy, and the US version, there’s a ton of differences
Bloody Ancient Athenians coming over here and taking our right to be governed by dictatum.
What kind of tatum?
It’s the first time I heard about that… is that a common nonsensical political trope?
Considering Latin America has had multiple coupes caused by the US I can see why their populace is bit suseptical to that sort of rhetoric.
America had communal systems for like 30 thousand years before the Spanish came, and guess which system they had
Am sorry but my native American imperialistic ancestors liked annexing and conquering those beneath them and make their own empire that got annexed by the Spanish. Big fish ate small fishies before it got nommed by a shark.
Most of them were monarchies that got destroyed by another monarchy.
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if he lives that long
So a dictatorship.
A candidate being so insanely popular the other parties dont stand a chance isnt really the same as a dictatorship.
And why does a guy with this much support feel compelled to do away with democracy in the first place? This dude is already neck-deep in some shit and is already working to undermine the eventual backlash.
Anyone who puts the words “coolest dictator” in a non satire publication needs to be stockaded
We really need journalists on this planet to do their jobs
Like this journalist did by quoting him directly? Does no one even read anymore?
I read it, but you know many simply go by headlines, which are tailored as clickbait, often irresponsibly. So I’m fine with quoting the guy in context, but it’s poor form to let him get away with ‘coolest dictator’ in the context-free part that 80% of people will see.
Yeah, maybe they should run their country more like Mexico!
He wants to be the only gang in Salvador
My latin American country needs someone like this dude to get rid of both local and foreign crime, which is going to run rampant at some point
Salvador’s millennial president
Are we the badies?
Are millennials destroying democracy?
Dude looks like the darkest timeline’s version of Johnathan from Queer Eye.
Idk I immediately side with South American leaders that the US seems to think are evil 🤷 seen the pattern too much. Anything he’s doing that’s bad or is he just a leftist not giving the capitalist class what they want?
ITT: People who don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about. If you’re not Salvadorean, or have no understanding of how politics in El Salvador have been for the past half-century, kindly shut up.
Glad you cleared that up for all of us.
We’re not allowed to have our own opinions?
How very Dictator of you.
Yeah I mean 85% of the people voted for him which is a crazy majority, so he must directing the country in the direction the population wants…
I don’t agree with it, but I’m not El Salvadoran so my opinion doesn’t matter.
Can other latin Americans who suffer under crime comment? :'(
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I got to meet him at a wedding about a year ago. He’s like a regular guy he just cares about the people. I don’t think the one party thing is on purpose.
