El Salvador's millennial president is a man with one vision: Power [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.(Salvador Melendez / Associated Press)

By KATE LINTHICUMSTAFF WRITER
MAY 16, 2021 4 AM PT

SAN SALVADOR — A few days after he led a coup, the president of El Salvador uploaded a video onto TikTok of him gliding in a military vehicle while hundreds of soldiers salute.

Then comes the soundtrack: A booming reggaeton song called “Bichota"— slang for “big shot.”

The video — irreverent, rooted in pop culture and projecting brazen strength — has been viewed 2.6 million times and is textbook Nayib Bukele, a former marketing executive who has deftly used social media and unbridled confidence to become, at 39, one of the most popular leaders in the world.

Since he took office two years ago on a pledge to fight gangs, squash corruption and break with the country’s entrenched political parties, Bukele’s approval ratings have hovered around 90%, practically unheard of in politics. That has held steady even as he has veered toward autocracy, attacking the press and civil society and occupying the nation’s Legislative Assembly with troops last year after lawmakers refused to approve an anti-crime spending bill.

n February, Bukele’s party swept midterm elections. On May 1, the day the country‘s new legislature was sworn in, his supporters moved to oust his critics on the Supreme Court and in the attorney general’s office — an illegal power grab that political scientists have called a “self-coup.”

More:
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-05-16/nayib-bukele-the-most-popular-president-in-the-world-is-a-man-with-one-ideology-power