Nayib Bukele has been the President of El Salvador since 2019. He has transformed the country from the nation with the world's highest murder rate to that with the world's highest incarceration rate, having arrested more than 70,000 people (1% of the population) in less than two years.
His programme presents complicated trade offs and moral dilemmas; how much of your freedom would you be willing to submit for safety?
Meanwhile, economic opportunity is still difficult to come by, as Bukele’s government has done little to invest in social services, and instead has spent his time gentrifying the Salvadoran coastline and making Bitcoin legal tender. The deal Bukele has offered Salvadorans seems to be: you’ll submit your civil liberties, I'll eradicate crime, but after that, you’re on your own.
My guest today is Ricardo Avelar. Ricardo is a Salvadoran journalist at Revista Factum, a digital magazine committed to bringing independent journalism to El Salvador.