I was beyond thrilled to have the opportunity to visit El Salvador for the first time last fall. El Salvador is “the thumb” of Latin America, a tiny print of mountainous, jungle covered costal land situated between Guatemala and Honduras. The entire country boasts a population of 6 million. There are an additional 3 million El Salvadorans living outside the country, mostly in the US.
This exodus is the result of a brutal, decades long civil war that lasted until the early 1990s. Salvadorans fleeing the violence arrived in the United States. The lack of opportunity helped to form some of the most notorious cartels associated with El Salvador, such as the MS-13 which first started in the 1980s in Los Angeles. The US deported gang members back to El Salvador. Once there they became their own governing force, replacing the rebel militia when the civil war ended. El Salvador remained unstable. Kidnappings were common place. The gangs forced the recruitment of young boys, just as the rebel groups before them had done. The only other option was to flee. This was the country with the highest death rate in the world. Up until just a few years ago, El Salvador had an average murder rate of 30 people per day.
Then, with the emergence of Nayib Bukele, things took a dramatic turn. Bukele is a self described “cool dictator” who has completely changed the face of El Salvador. Bukele worked in marketing before moving into politics. He was elected first a mayor of San Salvador, then president of the country at age 37 in 2019. There is a great six part podcast that goes into detail on him and his rise to power that I highly recommend from Radio Ambulante called Bukele: el señor de los sueños.
El Salvador went from one the most dangerous to one of the safest countries in Latin America over a period of just a few years. But what happens now? I wanted to know from the people who live there. I took a direct flight from Miami and arrived at the airport that sits about 40 minutes outside the city center.
A life sized cardboard cutout of Bukele in a suit with a sash with the colors of the Salvadoran flag greeted me upon passing through customs. It sat on a stage complete with a throne like chair and red and gold backdrop for a photo opp. Once outside the lush, tree covered mountains surrounded me. I wasn’t sure if I would need to take a local taxi but I had no problem getting an Uber right away. The airport was so small that there was no curbside pickup, we met in the parking lot and the driver Antonio loaded my bags into his van.
As we made our way to my hotel he told me about how happy he was now that Bukele was in power. Things had been so dangerous before that he had been planning on leaving the country. He has two daughters, he explained. The eldest was now 16. Before Bukele, he was worried about what would happen to them. When they got old enough, some gang member or another would force them to be the girlfriend. If he or his daughters refused, they would kill the entire family.
The only way it was possible for him and his family to stay in El Salvador was because of the changes that Bukele had made. Now, he drove Uber. When he had time he specifically picked up passengers from the airport to get customers for his new tourism business. He and a driver made custom itineraries for private groups. He is starting to learn English. The entire tourism industry in El Salvador is just beginning to develop.
Antonio’s eldest daughter had recently asked him for permission to cut her hair. But he wasn’t sold on the idea. Don’t worry, I said, it will grow back. Ah see, now you are helping her he replied, laughing. I thought back to myself at 16. I couldn’t imagine asking my parents for permission for something like that at that age. Of course, much farther from my comprehension was the thought of living in fear of being forced to be someone’s girlfriend so that my family wouldn’t be killed. In just a couple of years, life had completely changed for Antonio and his family, and he attributed everything to Bukele.
I expect it to change fairly quickly, however there were very few city tours of San Salvador when I went. After some searching, I did manage to find this one, and I cannot recommend it enough. I arrived early to park Cuscatlán. It was warm and there was a light drizzle. I bought a frozen chocolate covered banana for $1. The official currently of El Salvador is famously bitcoin. You will see the ATMs everywhere. But most people use USD.
The area surrounding the park did not seem particularly nice, the houses were small and rundown. The owners had topped the concrete fences with barbed wire or broken glass bottles cemented into place. Other than the little shop selling bananas, coffee, and other snacks like chips and popcorn there were no other businesses. But it also did not seem particularly dangerous. There was no graffiti. Children were riding bikes. Policemen patrolled the inside the park. And although I didn’t notice right away, there were security cameras absolutely everywhere.
I thought that I would be the only one on the tour, or that it would be a small group. But it was actually a good size, there were a number of other tourists. There was a German couple headed south, and a nomadic India couple who rerouted themselves to El Salvador after their visa to Brazil was denied. The was a woman about my age from Colombia who was also here on business, and a lifelong Peace Corps employee who had arrived a few months ago with the opening of the office in El Salvador. Until recently it had been too dangerous to have operations in the country.
Our tour guide David told us about his own story and the history of El Salvador. By the time he turned 12, his only choice was to join the military or the militia. So his family paid coyotes and he set out on foot through Mexico, eventually arriving in New York. The rest of his family is still there, he is the only one that came back. At first, he was working in customer support for commercial airlines. Now that tourists are visiting, he has started his own business. His teenage son, also named David, was there with us. He was shy but seemed happy enough to be there, learning the trade.
Like Antonio, he spoke in glowing terms about Bukele. Things were so bad before, he explained. Leaving your house everyday, you didn’t know if you would be coming home. It would have been impossible to come to this park before, it was a hot spot of prostitution and other gang activity. The previous government was working hand in hand with the organized crime that was running the country. According to David, the government had let the gangs use the military facilities to train for target practice. That is how closely aligned the two groups were. Now, all the gang members are in jail. Gang affiliated tattoos are enough to put you in jail for over ten years. And lesser crimes, for example animal abuse, came with a sentence of two years in jail.
The Government has since filled the park with art installations. We walked along a sprawling mural covering the boarder of one end of the park that told the story of El Salvador. It contained images of the conquest, the endless civil war. At the end of the mural was a list of of everyone who had died or gone missing. Some 75,000 people. As we left the park to tour the main plaza, the rain had cleared. I noticed a group of teenagers gathered at a table, working diligently on their laptops.
There is all kind of construction happening around San Salvador and other parts of the country. China, Russian and some Middle Eastern countries are pouring money into investments there. David explained that much of the labor for the construction and other jobs is done by convicts with a record of good behavior who have completed the majority of their sentences.
We passed the church where the government assassinated Archbishop Oscar Romero in March of 1980 during mass. They considered him a target for preaching peace to his congregation. He asked the soldiers, who are you going to listen to, your commander or your god?
We got to tour the library. A modern marvel made possible by Chinese investments. More than just a library, the building includes art installations and all kinds of different themed displays like Harry Potter or Batman aimed at enticing kids into reading. They have programs where children can play video games after reading for an hour. If you go, I recommend grabbing a horchata coffee from the cafe on the ground floor before you leave.
The people I met with for work were all part of a tiny minority, the upper middle to upper class of El Salvador. One contact went to the same school that Bukele attended, describing it as a small world within an already small world. The people that I talked to about Bukele that were part of this group were the only ones I met that were not completely sold on this new version of El Salvador. One person told me, Things are definitely better, and safer. But let’s see what happens over the next several years, that is what I am worried about.
And that makes sense. The vast majority of the population worships Bukele, and for good reason. For the first time in generations, there is peace and safety for people living in El Salvador. There is the potential for to make a living and a life without violence. But there are also the mega prisons, like CECOT which has been all over the news in the US in recent weeks . Some of the largest prisons in Latin America are here, which is one of the smallest countries in the region.
And there is the surveillance, and the arrests. You can be sentenced to decades in prison with no due process for having a gang affiliated tattoo. While obviously not ideal from a human rights perspective, it is understandable how this could happen considering how organized crime has ravished the country. But things quickly get more complicated because this model is also being applied to much smaller offenses, such as traffic violations.
There are no longer legal structures in place to remove Bukele from power. But with such overwhelming popular support, it is hard to imagine a future in El Salvador without him, even if he hadn’t taken the steps necessary to install himself as a dictator indefinitely. Despite the human rights violations and the conditions inside the mega prisons he has created, he continues to be celebrated as a hero by almost everyone in the country,.
But with so much power in the hands of one person, the very same one who chose to consolidate it, it’s hard to imagine that things will not continue to escalate. Which is why my recommendation is that if you want to go visit El Salvador, you go now. Currently, it is incredibly safe for tourists and it is a beautiful country. However, already on the brink, my prediction is that Bukele will continue to build towards a complete police state. Within even the next five years, you may miss this unique window.
When I went to El Salvador, it was before the 2024 election. I wanted to go because I was worried that relations with the US would denormalize as Bukele’s dictatorship hardened. Now, with Trump in power, the exact opposite is occurring. Ever the dictator fan boy, Trump has become especially cozy with Bukele over the past several weeks. Trump first began sending prisoners from the US to El Salvador on March 15th, 2025. And Bukele was more than happy to take them in exchange for payment. The two men have more in common than this “symbiotic” relationship. Both came to power on a populists platform, and both have self-described “tough on crime” images to maintain, or what human rights activists call human rights violations. I can only assume that they will continue to be close as Trump accelerates his deportation campaign.
And although the history and the two countries are obviously very different, there are other parallels. When elected president, Bukele took on a paternalistic attitude during his victory speech. He compared El Salvador to a sick child that needed to be cured. He warned the country that although what he was about to do to may hurt at first, it would all be for the best in the end. And by his own reckoning, Bukele was just the father to give this bitter medicine.
Compare this to Trump’s own attitude on any number of things. For example, when he stated oh so iconically that he was going to protect women, whether the women like it or not. Or defending his tariff policy, staying that there may be some pain now but in the long term the tariffs will benefit the country.
It is particularly frustrating because I can empathize with the people of El Salvador that elected and continue to support Bukele. But I can’t extend that same understanding to the people of the United States that elected Trump and continue to support him. Especially as he consolidates his power just as Bukele did. Just to reiterate, I am not saying that El Salvador and the United States are the same country or in the same situation. But seeing how a dictatorship developed so rapidly and so recently in El Salvador does feel like an eery harbinger of what is currently unfolding in this country.
I personally am still committed to protesting and resisting in the ways that I can. I am donating. I am calling and writing my respresentatives. But I wonder, with still so much of the population in support of the current administration, what will it matter? If and when Trump does continue to govern after 2028, will it be too late to leave?
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