Bukele Proclaims Himself Re-Elected as Salvadoran President

On Sunday night, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele declared himself the winner of the elections with over 85 percent of the votes.

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Thousands of citizens gathered in front of the National Palace with the New Ideas Party's flags and shirts to celebrate the start of the new 5-year presidential term.

"Thank you, El Salvador. Today, El Salvador has broken all records of any democracy in the world's history," Bukele said at the beginning of his victory speech, while his supporters chanted his name and blew trumpets.

Although the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) has not yet provided official data, he claimed to have won with over 85 percent of the votes. The New Ideas leader also stated that his party secured at least 58 legislators.

The text reads, "Bukele, the evangelical dictator and human rights violator, clings to power in El Salvador for 5 more years. But we leave the sanctions of the European Union and the United States for Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, since perhaps 'he is a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch',"

This situation turns El Salvador into a "single-party country in a democratic system," with a "shattered" opposition, Bukele said, pointing out that El Salvador went from being the world's most insecure country in 2015 to the safest nation in the Western Hemisphere in 2024.

"For this reason, the people spoke in the most decisive way at the polls," the Salvadoran president said, criticizing journalists, NGOs, and international institutions.

Critics of the Bukele regime, however, pointed out that his reelection happened by undermining the rule of law, as the Constitution prohibits two consecutive terms to prevent any president from disrupting democratic alternation. "The coolest dictator in the whole world," as Bukele defined himself, disagrees.

Over the past two years, he has governed by imposing a state of exception, allowing him to reduce the homicide rate to 2.4 people per 100,000 inhabitants. More than 75,000 people were detained under this regime for their alleged links to gangs and organized crime.

Human rights defenders denounced that thousands of them were innocent and arrested to meet certain detainee quotas, allowing the Bukele regime to showcase efficiency in its fight against insecurity.

"Human rights violations have been constant during the Bukele administration. We can only expect it to continue growing because everything indicates that he will continue with these public policies. The dictatorship is going to be fully legalized," explained Rina Montti, from the humanitarian organization Cristosal.