Film director Jorge Dalton defended President Nayib Bukele's management in El Salvador and stated that the leader "put an end to the war among Salvadorans" during an interview with CiberCuba. He also spoke about his childhood in Cuba and Czechoslovakia, his documentary "En un rincón del alma," and the need for change on the Island.
Dalton, the son of the poet Roque Dalton—murdered in 1975 by his own guerrilla comrades in El Salvador—answered straightforwardly when asked if he felt comfortable with Bukele: "To be honest, if you look at the two terms he has served as president... this country has changed extraordinarily," he said.
The filmmaker born in El Salvador but raised in Cuba contextualized the transformation from a historical perspective, highlighting that the violence in his country has roots that span "almost a century," well before the 12-year civil war that left tens of thousands dead.
In this regard, Jorge Dalton described how both the guerrilla and the right committed atrocious crimes in that conflict. "The guerrilla would arrive at a house and kill a person simply because they had money, simply because they were wealthy without having killed anyone. Here, some mayors were kidnapped just for being right-wing."
For Dalton, Bukele's main merit is having broken that cycle. "The truth is that what I have to acknowledge about this president is that he ended that war, put an end to insecurity, eliminated the recalcitrant traditional right-wing parties, and finished off the outdated, deeply corrupted recalcitrant leftist party."
The filmmaker, who arrived in El Salvador with his Cuban wife in 1998, emphasized the contrast with the present. "The El Salvador I found when we arrived in '98 is nothing like the El Salvador there is right now."
Dalton also highlighted the cultural shift among young Salvadorans. In his opinion, "they are already getting used to the idea that this country must live without violence and that life is the most important thing."
However, the director of "In a Corner of the Soul" and "Wounded by Shadows" was careful not to idealize the process. "Bukele does not have a magic wand to solve everything," he warned, adding that "it is a process that cannot be defined by two presidential terms but must be defined by the transformation that society needs to undergo."
This nuanced vision connects with Dalton's personal journey, the author of the documentary "In a Corner of the Soul" (2016), about the Cuban writer Eliseo Alberto Diego, and with his reflection on what a transition in Cuba could signify.
The filmmaker warned that societies deeply damaged over decades can descend into chaos when the time for change arrives, and that many dream of Cuba "becoming the pearl of the Caribbean again," but the outcome "could also be catastrophic because the harm done to the country and society is very significant."
The transformation of El Salvador under Bukele has been documented with concrete figures: the president celebrated 900 days without homicides in May 2025, a historic milestone for a country that was considered the most violent in the Western Hemisphere, and the homicide rate finished 2024 at a historic low.
Jorge Dalton is the son of the poet Roque Dalton, who ironically described his country as "my country is a little piece of shit" — a phrase that his son referenced in the interview to illustrate how much El Salvador's image has changed in the world.
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