El Salvador’s authoritarian president is becoming a regional role model
That is dangerous for democracy and human rights
In january Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s president, carried out the latest of the eye-catching acts that have characterised his time in office. He inaugurated the “terrorist-confinement prison” on the plains near the San Vicente volcano in the centre of the country. Mr Bukele says it will hold 40,000 detainees, which will make it the largest prison in the world (and the most crowded in the Americas).
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This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Borrowing from Bukele”
From the March 18th 2023 edition
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