Nayib Bukele’s face appears repeatedly in the clothes for sale in the informal shops of central San Salvador. Victor Pena
According to the UC Home Safety Barometer recently published in the South American country, 85% of Chileans perceive an increase in crime in the last year. Crime has been the main concern of citizens for months and half of the population believes that “public and private freedoms should be suppressed” in order to control them (CEP, July). Although the majority support the democratic system, 60% believe that authoritarianism is justified in certain crises, such as uncontrolled crime (University Alberto Hurtado-Critera, August). In this complex social climate, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele is the second most valued international leader by Chileans (77%, Cadem), behind only his Caden colleague Justin Trudeu (78%). His popularity is such that only two ministers in Gabriel Boric’s government are better known than him.
Trudeau’s positive rating is a hair higher, but only 45% of respondents know who he is (he is among the three most unknown in the survey), while 85% of Chileans know or have heard of the Salvadoran. “It’s a very high level. “It has increased by 10 points since March, when we started measuring it,” says Roberto Izikson, director of polling institute Cadem. “Almost no minister in Gabriel Boric’s government is so well known in the country [dos de 24] and such a level of positive assessment would be desirable,” adds the political scientist, who is convinced that Chile has probably never been subjected to so much populist and semi-authoritarian leadership.
To combat the gangs, the main criminal organizations in the Central American country, Bukele imposed a state of emergency in El Salvador, militarizing security and suspending citizen guarantees for almost a year and a half. More than 71,000 people, including more than 1,600 minors, were arrested by security forces. The murder rate, one of the highest in the world for years, reached a rate of 7.8 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022. Despite reports from human rights organizations about torture and enforced disappearances, the president’s popularity is around 90%.
Chile recorded a rate of 6.7 murder victims per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022, an increase of 46% compared to 2021, according to data from the National Prosecutor’s Office. Chilean economist Rodrigo Valdés, in charge of the Western Hemisphere Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned in EL PAIS that there is a security and crime problem in the region “to which greater importance must be given from a macroeconomic perspective”. “It impacts economic growth, people’s quality of life and willingness to invest. It is time for the region to give even more weight to this issue because it has implications on many dimensions,” he noted.
For the doctor of sociology and director of the Urban Security Center of the Alberto Hurtado University, Franz Wanderschueren, there are three reasons for the good rating of Bukele in Chile: the prevailing perception that insecurity has increased but the Boric government is not effective in fighting crime; the wide gap between victimization and feelings of safety; and the lack of immigration control, which allowed former prisoners from Venezuela’s Aragua to enter the country and “begin to carry out extortions to which Chile was not accustomed.”
Wanderschueren adds that there has been no vigorous police reform. Carabineros, severely punished by citizens in 2019 for its disproportionate use of force during the social outbreak, is now one of the most highly rated institutions in Chile. To address the security crisis, Boric’s executive branch is developing a profound reform, while several laws have been passed in Congress, such as the mandatory use of body cameras in their uniforms or the expansion of the scope for legitimate defense and increased penalties for those who attack them .
British journalist Michael Reid, an expert on Latin America, points out that the left often makes a mistake when it doesn’t take the issue of security seriously: “Their response is mostly sociological, in the sense that they address the causes of crime want if they.” The population demands that he protect them. The problem with not confronting insecurity is that it risks creating frustration among citizens and calls for drastic and authoritarian measures that lead to a violation of human rights.”
Bukele is using his popularity to establish a “kind of civil dictatorship,” Reid says, with mass trials and the seizure of legislative and judicial control. The former editor-in-chief of The Economist predicts that many Salvadorans who are happy with security policies today will regret supporting them in the future.