El Salvador's Bukele: Authoritarian or Model President?

Frontier magazine's Peter Gietl and Salvadoran journalist Ricardo Avelar debate the merits of Nayib Bukele's criminal justice policies.

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El Salvador's Bukele: Authoritarian or Model President?

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Peter Gietl of Blaze Media and Salvadoran journalist Ricardo Avelar debate the resolution, "President Nayib Bukele's crime-fighting policies in El Salvador provide a model for reducing violence in other Latin American countries."

Arguing in favor is Gietl, the managing editor for Return and Frontier magazine for Blaze Media. In November of last year, Gietl published a lengthy photojournalistic essay chronicling his travels to El Salvador, titled "J'Adore El Salvador," which he concludes by asking: "Can we bottle [El Salvador's transformation] up and ship it back to America?"

Taking the negative is Avelar, a senior journalist and presenter for the Central American news outlet Revista Factum. In 2021, he co-directed a docuseries called 9F: The Return of Rifles, which is about the "El Bukelazo" events of February 9, 2020.

The debate is moderated by Soho Forum director Gene Epstein.

• Post Production: John Osterhoudt

Comments

[Uncle Jay]

I'm surprised El Salvador's presidente didn't send all his violent criminals to the US like a lot of other countries did the past four years.
That way, he wouldn't have to face the wrath of civil libertarians who live in gated and guarded communities.

[JesseAz (mean girl ambassador)]

Freedom to harass and threaten other people is a freedom too.

From the rag that defended 20 years for non violent J6ers... please don't lock up criminals.

[Incunabulum]

Por que no los dos?

Sometimes its necessary to do horrible shit. The question is, after seizing power to fix a major issue, are you willing to relinquish that power later?

Washington did, few others have.

[damikesc]

If you have no property rights, you have no rights at all. He had to restrict the rights of the people violating property rights constantly to allow others to actually have their rights.

[Social Justice is neither]

To answer the header - yes. The situation had spiraled out of control and I'm not seeing any realistic libertarian policies offered to meaningfully address the violence. We will see where this goes in the next few years, hopefully more liberties are restored without devolving back to rule by violent gang.

[shadydave]

Yeah I mean this is the basic issue: it wasn't like he succeeded a series of great statesmen who guided El Salvador deftly through the troubles of governance. So on the one hand, this is is major step up from the way they were governed before, which is to say not in the slightest.

On the other hand, enlightened despotism is better than garden variety despotism sure, but it's despotism just the same. So we'll have to wait and see.

[Ersatz]

El Salvador's Bukele: Authoritarian or Model President?

Cant he be both?

[With Trump in, "now Lord you can let your servant go in peace"]

doesn't this cry out for Libertarians to agitate for 1) Freedom of Religion

"Burkele’s father was a practicing Muslim and served as the Imam of the Muslim Community in San Salvador. His mother’s family comes from Bethlehem, and his wife’s family has a traditionally Jewish heritage. "
about 75% of El Salvador is Christian,.
I noted the same thing with Kamala Harris. There is nothing in her background or public statements that is good for religious freedom.

Most Libertarians will be familiar with Michael Burleigh A new Pope is coming soon, maybe an African in the JPII or Pope Benedict mold so here is MB's statement

" he takes note of the present crisis (“religious extremism and terrorism in all its monstrous forms, weapons of mass destruction; the culture of death, beginning with unrestricted abortion-on-demand and ending in easy euthanasia; continuing war, genocide, disease, famine, persecution…horror is all around us”) and asserts the Church’s unique capacity to respond:

The Church’s teaching about the dignity of human life, at every stage of its existence; its insistence on objective truth and the four last things–death, judgment, heaven and hell; its opposition to militarism yet rejection of outright pacifism in a dangerous world; its belief in the compatibility of faith and reason-all of these facts, said Burleigh, place the Roman Catholic Church in a unique and pivotal position to make a real difference. Despite the recent scandals in the Church, and what he calls a “pathological anti-Catholicism” attempting to exploit them, the time is right for the Church of Rome to act: “No other religious body has the strength, the respect and the authority to influence the world for the better.”"

REASON needs an exorcist to get rid of the Ayn Rand hate and nonsense. I read her "For the New Intellectual " decades ago and became a Catholic from that experience !!!

I reacted just as Christian daughter of Bertrand Russell did to all that progress, reason bullshit

Reason, progress, unselfishness, a wide historical perspective, expansiveness, generosity, enlightened self-interest. I had heard it all my life, and it filled me with despair.

Katherine Tait