We Need an American Bukele [Most Based World Leader]

Newsweek ^ | 3/1/23 | GAVIN WAX AND NATHAN BERGER

[nickcarraway]

The relationship between the United States and its hemispheric neighbors has long been a critical driver of both foreign and domestic policy. Since the Monroe Doctrine, the United States has, to varying degrees, sought to instruct the nations of South and Central America on how to manage their affairs. Today, Americans must reverse that paradigm and look to a small Central American nation as a blueprint for restoring law and order to its rightful place in governance: El Salvador.

When Salvadorans elected President Nayib Bukele in 2019, they gave him a clear enough mandate: Fix things. Since the conclusion of the Salvadoran Civil War, which raged from 1979 to 1992, El Salvador has experienced modest economic growth. However, persistent corruption and inflation hampered quality of life, and emigration to the United States drained the nation of productive members of its labor force.

Bukele directly addressed the problems facing El Salvador when he took power. As he told VICE News in an interview, "The gangs have been running this parallel state. They charge taxes, they control territory, they provide security. But I'm not [going to] convert their de facto power into formal power."

Bukele was referring primarily to two gangs, MS-13 and Barrio 18, which de facto controlled vast swaths of El Salvador and brought drug and sex trafficking, violent crime, and extortion to every community. Traveling between Salvadoran towns put lives at stake, as gangs controlled public transportation. MS-13, in particular, has also exported its destructive violence abroad, including to the United States.

But rather than take the approach typical of far too many American politicians—talking about the problem, creating committees to study it, and ultimately doing nothing to solve it—Bukele took decisive action. He promptly launched the popular Territorial Control Plan to rein in gang violence.

[Clemenza]

Total retard for embracing bitcoin but other that a decent president dornEl Salvador.

[Tax-chick]

Well, sure. However, the question of whether Bukele's efforts, including the megacarcel, will be successful is still open. We won't know until some time has passed.

The President of Colombia is saying how terrible it is, but he's a Communist ex-guerrilla, so meh to him. Bukele replies that at least those in the new prison will be prevented from doing more harm.

That is what remains to be seen. Putting people in prison in the United States often does not stop them from doing more harm. Some of that harm is to other inmates, but many times, gang leaders are able to continue operating criminal enterprises from their cells.