Bukele sweeps El Salvador's presidential elections

PresidentNayib Bukele He swept the El Salvador elections held on Sunday, guaranteeing his mandate until June 1, 2029.

"According to our numbers, we have won the presidential election with more than 85% of the votes and a minimum of 58 out of 60 deputies in the Assembly. The record in the entire democratic history of the world," Bukele announced on his Twitter account. before the official vote count was ready.

The 42-year-old former mayor and businessman, who bases his popularity on his measures against gang violence and the reduction of delinquency and crime in communities, is the first Salvadoran president to be re-elected since democracy was established in country.

"This day El Salvador has broken all the records of all democracies in the history of the world. It is the highest percentage in all of history. (...) We have won the Legislative Assembly with at least 58 out of 60 deputies. It is possible that there are more," he said to a crowd from a stage set up in front of the National Palace.

"The entire opposition together was pulverized. El Salvador this day has made history again," he added.

All the polls declared Bukele the winner, who in his campaign did not make any public events or go on television, he only reported his actions on Twitter, where he shared a video in which he asked the population to vote for his New Ideas party. maintain security measures.

After more than four years in power, of which the last two have been under an emergency regime in which constitutional guarantees were suspended, his war against the feared gangs has left more than 75,000 people in prison, while the The number of murders in the streets dropped precipitously.

On the other hand, it is estimated that of that total, several thousand people have been unjustly imprisoned, tried without any procedural guarantee, with allegations of mistreatment, torture, disappearances and deaths documented by organizations such as Human Rights Watch.

The president defends himself by saying that theHuman rights defenders only defend the rights of criminals.

In September 2022, Bukele announced his intention to re-elect himself so that "we can continue this path that we have started, the path that for the first time in our history has proven to be the correct one."