Opinion: Bukele's Ideology Is Opportunism

[Judi Lynn]

Brendan Smialowski

Wednesday, July 3, 2024
El Faro Editorial Board

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Nayib Bukele has announced on social media the firing of 300 employees of the Salvadoran Ministry of Culture for “promoting agendas that are not compatible with the vision of this administration.” Among those sacked —the most recent victims of Bukele’s opportunist turn— were all of the members of the National Choir.

In February he denounced these “incompatible agendas” at the ultraconservative Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland. He said that his administration would remove “[gender] ideology from the schools and universities.” He added that parents are made to “pay for [their children] to have an education in things that go against nature, against God.”

As unlikely as it might sound to those who have not closely followed the political process in El Salvador, the man who uttered those words is the same who a decade earlier, as candidate for mayor of San Salvador, met with LGBTQ+ advocacy groups to tell them that defending their rights was the modern civil rights battle, and that to do so was to be on the right side of history.

As a video we recently published demonstrates, Bukele has transformed from an ally of the LGBTQ+ population to a touter of ultraconservative policies. What yesterday was a fundamental principle is today worth nothing. How many times have we seen this kind of contradiction since he rose to the presidency? Power has transformed him into the antithesis of the politician he claimed to be prior to 2019.

. . .

He was “converted” into a religious man, calling himself during his first presidential term “an instrument in the hands of God.” He invited televangelists to Casa Presidencial and flew in private jets —the owners and costs of which he never revealed— while taking pictures to be distributed on his social media accounts. He pacted with criminal organizations and made state secrets, threats, and propaganda the pillars of his political project. In March 2022 he decreed a state of exception that became permanent. He demanded mass detention quotas from the Police and Army and constructed the largest prison on the continent. Torture and death have returned to Salvadoran prisons.

More:
https://elfaro.net/en/202407/opinion/27484/bukele-rsquo-s-ideology-is-opportunism



https://www.tiktok.com/@bukelesvia/video/7357527420976516395?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/q9_kg9WwY9Q