NSmolenskiFan on Nostr: Part of the controversy around Bukele is that many observers don’t seem to have an ...

Part of the controversy around Bukele is that many observers don’t seem to have an account of when criminality shades into warfare. A few teenagers holding up and robbing a store is a crime. The occasional kidnapping and homicide is a crime. Institutionalized gang warfare, lasting generations and effectively strangling civil society and driving a refugee crisis, is really closer to war. Which makes sense, given the origins of Salvadoran gang violence in the Salvadoran Civil War.

The challenge for wartime leaders like Bukele is how to restore sufficient confidence in the institutions of state justice that the state of emergency can be truly sunset. This means creating a path for greater enfranchisement of the population in the political process, the institutionalization of conflict in the deliberative bodies of an elected legislature, and the peaceful transfer of power. It is extraordinarily difficult to thread this needle, and many countries end up collapsing back into warfare the moment a strong, charismatic leader is no longer in power. I hope for the people of El Salvador that the Bukele Government can transition the country to a stable, lasting peace.