Mario Miguel Córdoba, a 37-year-old courier, was walking down a street in San Salvador two days ago with a sack of corn on his shoulder when he realized that some soldiers were stationed a few meters away. He sensed that they would stop him, as they had done on five other occasions. The dizziness that came over him as he looked closely at the boots and rifles was not new. I could have turned around, but that would be suspicious; They would chase him, knock him out, he would fall to the ground and who knows what else could happen. The thought of a gun being pointed at his forehead filled him with terrible fear. So he gritted his teeth and continued on his way. Sure enough, a few seconds later, a soldier grabbed his arm. They picked up his shirt to check for tattoos. They asked him if he belonged to one of the gangs. They forced him to sit on the sidewalk and wait there for an hour until they found out that it was true that a woman had ordered the corn from him. For a few moments he thought they would take him away and put him in some of the prisons where Nayib Bukele has incarcerated more than 70,000 people in recent years. Many find themselves in a legal limbo that denies them exit, as if the authorities had thrown the keys to their cells into the sea.
However, Córdoba believes that the president did all this for the benefit of Salvadorans. “You used to have to walk with one eye on your back and one on your forehead. The gangs disrupted communities. The emergency regime was incredible. “Things are settled,” says the messenger, who this Sunday voted with his eyes closed for Bukele, who will surely be re-elected for another five years and his Nuevas Ideas party will have a comfortable majority in the Legislative Assembly. which will give the president a lot of room for maneuver. Although it is documented that there are many prisoners who have not been proven guilty of any crime, solving the problem of insecurity that has undermined the lives of its citizens for two decades has made Bukele a hugely popular politician. Nobody in the opposition casts him the slightest shade.
Bukele's victory will be overwhelming. Nevertheless, the ruling party showed a great performance at the polling stations. Party tents have been set up in the area, volunteers are handing out potato packets to voters and officials wearing New Ideas vests are directing traffic. There is no doubt that the Cyan Formation, the party that Bukele founded to compete in elections outside the country's two historical formations, is gradually merging with the state. “I vote for him. He's a good president, we've never had anyone like him. I like everything he has done,” supports María Eva Portilla, an 81-year-old woman who went to vote arm in arm with her daughter-in-law.
A feeling of euphoria electrifies Bukele's supporters. At a polling station, his supporters greeted Assembly President Ernesto Castro with large flags fluttering in the wind. Moisés Anaya voted at the Viuda de Escalón school in the neighborhood of the same name. “Now the country is quiet. He freed us from thieves and corrupt rulers who stole. He does not. And now you can go anywhere, anytime. Everything has changed,” says Anaya. Edgardo Palacios, 23, supported his son: “I vote for his future, for a country without violence, not like the one we live in.” Palacios' wife, Selina de los Ángeles, 24, feels in for the first time their lives supported by the government: “Support low-income people like us and distribute food parcels.”
Bukele hasn't even campaigned yet. With his security plan, an exceptional regime with which he has dismantled the gangs, he has won over the vast majority of Salvadorans. The complaints from human rights organizations, the international community's warning that El Salvador is heading toward autocracy, and the poor economic data will have no impact on the results. The one known as the Millennial President for his use of social networks and his backwards attitude just had to wait this Sunday. The die is cast.
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