Saving El Salvador with 'the world's coolest dictator'



On the flight from Newark to San Salvador, I watched Oliver Stone’s 1986 movie “Salvador.” It had made a big impression on me as a Reagan-era high-schooler; now that I was about to land in the country for the first time, I was curious if it still held up.

Stone himself didn’t know much about El Salvador the one time he visited in 1985. He went there to scout locations with journalist Richard Boyle, whose exploits covering the still-raging civil war formed the basis for the screenplay he co-wrote with Stone.

Solce’s camera also deftly captures the excitement at the polls. An exuberant man wearing an 'El Salvador' presidential sash compares Bukele to 'the internet.'

Boyle had impressive connections and indefatigable enthusiasm. On his plan to borrow choppers from the Salvadoran air force: “We can pull off an 'Apocalypse Now' helicopter attack … for less than fifty grand!” But these weren’t enough to convince anyone to mount a Hollywood production in an active war zone. So they shot in Mexico instead.

In one gruesome scene, the movie recreates El Playon, the field of lava rock where paramilitary death squads dumped the civilians they murdered.

Boyle (played by James Woods as a fast-talking opportunist) and his old photojournalist buddy Cassady (John Savage) gingerly climb over the bodies of half-clothed men, women, and children as they philosophize about “capturing the nobility of suffering.”

“You gotta get close to get the truth. … You get too close, you die,” Cassady muses.

Claude Urraca/Getty Images

First-world problems

I seem to remember this kind of pretentious blather going over better in the 1980s. That was the heyday of the war correspondent as countercultural movie hero. Before “Salvador” there was “The Year of Living Dangerously” (Mel Gibson in 1960s Indonesia), “Under Fire” (Nick Nolte in Nicaragua), and “The Killing Fields” (Sam Waterston in 1970s Cambodia).

Boyle is by far the most dissolute and cynical of these protagonists, but like them he represents a certain ideal: the first-world journalist as courageous yet detached observer, able to plunge into the irrational chaos of third-world conflict and emerge with a credible, objective account of the truth.

How Boyle does this — and what it does to him — is the true subject of “Salvador,” which is why Stone didn’t need to understand the country, let alone film there.

As he said in an interview shortly before the movie’s release, “I didn’t set out to make a message movie about El Salvador. I wanted to do a movie about a correspondent.”

Glory days

On this count Stone succeeded; “Salvador” is a vivid and poignant depiction of an informational ecosystem that has all but collapsed. The American media simply no longer has the authority to present itself as the arbiter of truth — not to Americans and certainly not to citizens of some other country.

Getty Images/Robert Nickelsberg

Many journalists (especially those working for prestigious legacy institutions like the New York Times and the Washington Post) are in deep denial about this — even as they describe their own country’s decline into a kind of third-world dystopia at the hands of Donald Trump.

Of course, Trump is to blame for their loss of status, but not in the way that they think. He was the figure who finally forced them to drop their pose of superior neutrality and reveal themselves to be just as politically motivated as any other faction warring for control. “Democracy dies in darkness” is as much a partisan battle cry as Make America Great Again, and everybody knows it.

As the writer and critic Titus Techera points out, the collapse of the old media model offers an opportunity for those able to adapt to new technology. Trump was the first candidate to realize the potential of Twitter to reach voters directly; more recently, he used long-form podcasts to communicate in a more thoughtful, deliberate style than his wildly popular rallies allowed.

This opportunity naturally extends to countries as well as candidates. And at the moment, there’s no better example of a leader harnessing technology to redefine his nation’s place in the international order than El Salvador’s young, charismatic president, Nayib Bukele.

Iron fist

The remarkable transformation Bukele has achieved since taking office in 2019 speaks for itself. The onetime murder capital of the world is now more peaceful than Canada, thanks to the systematic arrest and incarceration of the roughly 75,000 gang members who’d been holding Salvadorans hostage in their own country for decades.

Even San Salvador’s charming Centro Histórico, where I would be attending a series of lectures hosted by the Palestra Society, was until recently a no-go zone — disputed gang territory where severed heads and other body parts were liable to turn up.

In retrospect that explains why the lodgings I’d cleverly booked minutes from the National Theater (where most of the event would be held) offered all the charm and hospitality of a CIA safe house.

It was only after my Uber driver called the number for me that a brusque prison matron of a receptionist unlocked the heavy, unmarked door and unceremoniously led me up a gloomy stairwell to a small kiosk, where she indifferently waited for me to summon the Spanish I needed to state my business.

I decided to heed the organizers’ recommendation and stay at the Hilton after all.

Bukele as strongman ...

Bukele’s crackdown on crime was bound to attract international attention, but the tech-savvy Millennial had the foresight to get ahead of the story.

Like many a startup founder, he and his Nuevas Ideas party “built in public,” posting cinematic videos of hundreds of cowed gang members, stripped to their underwear and herded into prison in perfect formation.

The sweeping arrests and mass trials required a so-called state of exception that suspended civil liberties; instituted in March 2022, it remains in effect to this day.

The Richard Boyles of the world saw a compelling new villain emerging for their stories. Article after article shifted focus from Bukele’s overwhelming popularity within El Salvador to concern over his “authoritarianism.” The moribund Time featured him on the cover with a one-word headline: “Strongman.”

Bukele was ready for this backlash as well. Instead of trying to stonewall reporters or simply ignore them, he met them head-on, playfully embracing his status as “the world’s coolest dictator.” The foreign press could build its narrative, but so could he — and he had a built-in audience of 6.7 million followers on X with whom to share it.

... and Bitcoin bro

Bukele was similarly proactive when it came to attracting investment in the “new” El Salvador. Key to this was the embrace of Bitcoin. In 2021, El Salvador became the first country to adapt the cryptocurrency as legal tender.

This, too, met with criticism, predictably from the same media establishment that had been stoking fears of a dictatorship. But it also had the effect of attracting a different type of foreigner from those one generallly sees flocking to places like El Salvador.

Instead of the usual NGOs and adviser-bureaucrats, this migration was led by Bitcoiners and the Bitcoin-curious. With them came their fellow travelers — ambitious, independent-minded contrarians whose questioning of conventional wisdom tends to read as right-leaning.

Philosopher king

The Palestra Society sits at the center of this scene. Founded in 2023 by a young American software engineer and Bitcoin evangelist who goes by clusk, the Palestra Society brings together curious and driven individuals passionate about art, philosophy, technology, and optimizing health.

These interests were reflected in the variety of speakers featured over the two-day series, which included critic and writer Catherine Sulpizio, sculptor Fen de Villiers, neurosurgeon and bio-hacking pioneer Dr. Jack Kruse (who advised Bukele on drafting El Salvador’s medical freedom legislation), Beck & Stone co-founder Andrew Beck, writer and editor Ben Braddock, and political theorist (and confirmed monarchist) Curtis Yarvin.

Also in attendance was Bukele’s younger brother Yusef, an economic adviser to the president who was instrumental in the country’s adoption of Bitcoin.

While Bukele himself was not present, he loomed large over the proceedings. This was especially apparent on the first night of the conference, when filmmaker Jessica Solce introduced the world premiere of her short documentary “Forging a Country.”

Art over ideology

Unlike many of the other presenters, Solce does not put her political convictions front and center. She is more artist than polemicist; nonetheless, her work exemplifies a quiet resistance to the tactics of mainstream, commercial documentary film.

A former actor and theater director, Solce fell into filmmaking in 2013, after a spur-of-the-moment decision to document a family friend’s art piece — in which viewers were invited to erase a large-scale pencil drawing of an AR-15 with erasers bearing the names of victims of gun violence.

That initial shoot led to Solce’s 2014 film “No Control,” a careful and nuanced depiction of various personalities orbiting the topic of gun control. It’s common to think of this as a “debate,” but Solce doesn’t frame it that way, instead opting for something more open-ended and less conclusive.

This was out of step with mainstream documentary filmmaking, which tends to favor easily digestible narratives catering to a specific viewership (usually the “liberal” one). While Solce’s film was well reviewed, it also proved surprisingly controversial, scandalizing some viewers with its failure to come down on the “correct” side of the issue.

'A Death Athletic'

One of Solce’s subjects in “No Control” was Cody Wilson, a charismatic former University of Texas law student and avowed crypto-anarchist who had recently designed and fired the world’s first 3D-printed handgun, which he dubbed the Liberator.

Solce would spend the next eight years capturing the story of Wilson and Defense Distributed, the open-source software organization he founded to create and distribute schematics for the Liberator and other 3D-printed firearms. The result was her 2023 film, “Death Athletic.”

Wilson is a controversial figure; Solce’s film documents his legal battles with the State Department, as well as his 2018 indictment for having sex with an underage girl.

But like its predecessor, “Death Athletic” refuses to editorialize. The result is powerful and — especially if you go into it with your mind already made up — disorienting.

Solce’s approach makes Nayib Bukele — a figure known to many in the West exclusively through editorializing — a natural subject for the filmmaker.

Surf's up

“Forging a Country” sticks to a narrow time frame: the few days surrounding Bukele’s re-election in February 2023.

From the start, Bukele’s decision to seek a second term was controversial. El Salvador’s constitution prohibits a president from serving two consecutive terms. It was only after the country’s highest court overruled this that Bukele was able to run. Critics pointed out that the court’s judges had been recently appointed by the Nuevas Ideas-controlled legislature after it dismissed the former judges for corruption.

For the most part, those expressing their “concern” were the usual Western politicians (both Biden and Harris weighed in, as did Secretary of State Antony Blinken) and pundits. Salvadorans, on the other hand, seemed to approve, and Bukele won with more than 80% of the votes.

Encode Productions

“Forging a Country” dares to take these voters seriously, approaching them with curiosity rather than condescension. What if Bukele and his constituents know what they’re doing?

It’s telling that the image with which Solce opens her film is not one of violence, or unrest, or poverty, but of natural beauty: serene drone footage of the sun-dappled Pacific Ocean just off the country’s coast. El Salvador has long been a top surfing destination, something former ad man Bukele has been eager to promote in his country’s new branding as “the land of surf, volcanoes, and coffee.”

From here the film transports us to the far less bucolic exterior of the United Nations building in Manhattan, cutting to clips from Bukele’s September 2022 address to the General Assembly.

Platforming a president

The very first person to speak in “Forging a Country” is the president himself.

“I come from a people who for a long time have seen themselves as less important than others. I come from a people who have never had the courage to make their own decisions. I come from a people whose destiny has always been controlled by others.”

The cure for this national malady is self-determination, and at the end of his speech, Bukele makes it clear that he’s not asking for the approval of the “international community.”

"I came here, to stand on this podium, in a format I no longer believe in, to say something that most likely won’t change the way powerful countries see the rest of us. But maybe it will change the way we developing countries see ourselves."

Solce intersperses Bukele’s speech with clips alluding to both the country’s future (people celebrating Bukele’s second presidential victory almost 18 months later) and its past (a body in a casket, gang members flashing their tattoos).

Like Solce’s two previous films, “Forging a Country” eschews narration or any other device that would give it a sheen of “objectivity.” In a sense, Bukele himself serves as a kind of narrator; we hear his voice throughout, and his speeches bookend the film.

Solce’s willingness to let Bukele speak for himself, and at length, is quietly subversive.

Our self-righteous, often hysterical news media has developed an allergy to “platforming” public figures who have the wrong kind of politics. Predictably enough, this censorship has undermined the media’s credibility.

Now it is precisely those familiar affectations of “objectivity” that signal incoming bulls**t.

Inside the campaign

If Bukele is a classic Latin American strongman, he’s going about it in a thoroughly modern, transparent way.

Unlike the right-wing military leader in “Salvador” (a fictionalized version of nationalist ARENA party co-founder Roberto D'Aubuisson), Bukele doesn’t make the international press chase him. He’s happy to speak with them, when he’s not bypassing them altogether. “Forging a Country” in part serves to document Bukele’s masterful command of 21st-century media.

Solce began “Forging a Country” on a miniscule budget (she describes her status in the business as “massively independent”) and without any official support from El Salvador. When she failed to secure permission to interview Bukele, she went ahead with the movie anyway.

Despite no direct access to Bukele himself, Solce manages to provide a compelling behind-the-scenes account of the campaign.

Yusef Bukele in particular proves to be a thoughtful surrogate for his older brother. Interviewed in and around his home in the hills on the outskirts of the capital, the charmingly disheveled Bukele seems genuinely bemused by the accusations of authoritarianism.

“We’re doing what the people want. We’re not doing anything different. The people elected my brother as the leader, and the leader says ‘we’re going there because that’s where I think we should go.’ And the people say ‘yes, OK, we’ll go there.’”

Encode Productions

Like Yusef Bukele, Foreign Minister Alexandra Hill Tinoco has the slightly exasperated tone of someone who is pointing out the obvious. The U.S., she tells Solce, “never took the time to understand that this country needed a chance and that this country needed changes … politically, socially, economically.” Instead, it was content to deal with “past administrations that made a business out of irregular migration … because that represented more remittances to our country.”

Solce’s camera deftly captures the excitement at the polls as well: an exuberant man wearing an “El Salvador” presidential sash compares Bukele to “the internet”; a middle-aged woman who left during the civil war proudly recounts returning to vote “for the first time”; Nayib Bukele greets poll workers as he casts his own vote.

'The entire opposition has been pulverized'

Solce also manages to be there for the moment hours later when Bukele and his wife enter the Palacio Nacional and ascend to its balcony to declare victory.

Encode Productions

As “Forging a Country” portrays it, it's clearly moment of great unity and optimism, with most of the country rallying around one of the most genuinely popular leaders in history. While international coverage acknowledged the scope of Bukele’s win, it was quick to add qualifiers about its legitimacy.

Strangely enough, publications ranging from Reuters and the New York Times to Fox News and the Washington Post all chose to highlight the same quote from Bukele’s speech, imputing a certain unseemly, power-hungry glee to the president: “The entire opposition has been pulverized.”

In context, these insinuations drop away; Bukele simply seems to be reveling in the mandate he’s been given to make good on his promises.

As far as I can tell, few if any outlets bothered to quote Bukele’s remarks at length. “Forging a Country” does, allowing us to take in Bukele’s stirring and eloquent rebuke of elites who take it upon themselves to “protect” voters from themselves.

People who don’t live in our country, people who don’t know El Salvador, who have never spent any time here, not even to make a connection at the airport, they say the Salvadorans are oppressed.They say Salvadorans don’t like the state of exception, that Salvadorans live in fear of the government.

I want to tell the journalists who are here with us tonight, in total freedom and security, here in the safest country in the Western Hemisphere: Don’t take my word for it. I am just a politician. I am just an elected official.

Believe the Salvadorans. Believe what they are telling you. They are telling you here in this public plaza, they told you in all the national and international opinion polls, even the opposition polls.

And if you don’t believe that, they told you today with the elections.

Americans have tended to regard countries like today’s El Salvador with paternal condescension: Look at the adorable developing democracy toddling its way to freedom.

But, freshly emerged from our own fraught and unusual re-election, should we really be so smug?

A night in the park

Midway through “Forging a Country” we find ourselves in a clean, well-lit San Salvador park at night. It’s bustling with people of all ages, walking dogs, riding bikes, playing basketball. It’s only when Solce trains her camera on a few of them that we realize how remarkable this scene truly is.

A cheerful young basketball player marvels at the simple freedom of movement many of us take for granted: “In the morning you can go to the hills, in the afternoon you can be on the beach.” He can even see friends in neighborhoods that were formerly off-limits. “A couple of years ago, impossible. If I visited, I wouldn’t have left.”

For another man, it’s enough to look around and see all the families spending time together in a public space after dark. “Will I go vote? Yes, I’m going to vote,” he says with wry understatement. “I think the decision is quite obvious.”

As Barack Obama once said, “Elections have consequences.” True, but for a certain class of Americans, those consequences have always remained abstract: Your candidate might lose, but you’ll still have food on the table and a safe place for your kids to play.

Such detachment is a luxury more and more of us can no longer afford. Someday soon we’ll have to stop lecturing other countries and put our own lofty standards to the test at home.

Only then, when we’ve done the hard work of getting our own house in order, will we be in any position to judge a statesman like Nayib Bukele.

FACT CHECK: Fact-Checking Trump’s RNC Speech

Former President Donald Trump spoke at the RNC Convention, just days after he was wounded in an assassination attempt

El Salvador's Nayib Bukele lauds America's founding ideals, throws shade at modern America in July 4th message



As people around the U.S. marked July 4th, El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele noted that Salvadorans take inspiration from the founding ideals of the U.S., but not from the ideals of modern America.

"Congratulations to the people of the United States of America on your Independence Day. We are inspired by you, not by the ideals you hold now, but by the ideals you had in 1776 when you gained your freedom and built the foundations of your great country. We will follow that example. Happy 4th of July!" Bukele declared in a post.

— (@)

"This is one of many reasons why I love @NayibBukele," GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah tweeted in response to Bukele's post.

Bukele includes the words "Philosopher King" in his profile on X.

'He is the most inspirational head of state in the Western Hemisphere by far.'

A number of Americans attended Bukele's latest inauguration last month, among them, Lee, who tweeted, "In El Salvador for the inauguration of President Nayib Bukele. He defeated his principal opponent, Manuel Flores, in February’s presidential election. To the best of my knowledge, Bukele made no attempt to imprison Flores."

Lee wrote in another tweet, "Thank you, President Bukele, for a delightful afternoon and an engaging conversation. Sharon and I enjoyed every minute of our time with you, and of our visit to your beautiful country."

"That man loves his country," Lee said of Bukele.

"It was an honor to attend the inauguration of President @nayibbukele in El Salvador with @DonaldJTrumpJr @TuckerCarlson and countless conservatives who support President Bukele's bold vision. He is the most inspirational head of state in the Western Hemisphere by far," Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida tweeted last month.

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El Salvadoran president has advice for Trump and a spiritual insight into his triumph over MS-13



Tucker Carlson recently interviewed Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, 42, who was re-elected earlier this year with over 83% of the vote. Interested in possible lessons for the U.S., Carlson pressed Bukele about his successful transformation of the Latin American country from a blood-soaked gangland into the second-safest country in the Western Hemisphere.

While the two discussed possible replicable successes that the United States could benefit from as well as God's role in MS-13's defeat, the Salvadoran president also obliged Carlson in providing former President Donald Trump with some advice in light of the Republican's recent conviction before a Democratic judge in a Democratic enclave on charges brought by a Democratic prosecutor.

Self-congratulatory losers

"What advice would you give to another former democratically elected leader seeking office who is facing jail time?" asked Carlson.

After a pregnant pause, Carlson added, "Anyone, just if there was such a person."

"If there was a way to stop the candidacy, then he's probably in trouble," said Bukele. "But if there's no way to stop him from competing in the election, all the things that they do to him will just give him more votes."

'They're making a huge mistake.'

"That seems to be happening," Carlson replied.

"Either you stop the candidacy or you let him be," said Bukele. "But just, you know, hitting him with — you're making the greatest campaign ever."

When pressed on whether he thinks Democrats are conscious that their efforts to imprison the presumptive Republican nominee ahead of the general election might backfire, Bukele indicated that some are likely aware, but others are ostensibly preoccupied chasing after the admiration of their peers and congratulating themselves.

"They're making a huge mistake. Huge, huge mistake," added Bukele.

The Salvadoran president's suggestion that Trump might be best served leaning into Democrats' attacks so long as the attacks do not preclude him from competing in the election was far from the only insight he shared with Carlson.

To replicate a 'miracle'

Early in the interview, Carlson asked, "If you can fix El Salvador, what are the lessons for the rest of us? What did you do first?"

'Once you achieve peace, you can struggle for all the other things.'

"You cannot do anything if you do not have peace. Right. And when I say peace, I include wars, civil wars, invasion, crime," said the president. "Once you achieve peace, you can struggle for all the other things."

Blaze News previously reported that there were 51 homicides per 100,000 in 2018, the year prior to Bukele's election. Under his leadership, the homicide rate fell to 7.8, such that El Salvador witnessed fewer homicides that year (495) than were reported in Democrat-run Chicago during the same period (695). Reuters indicated that crime dropped again last year by an estimated 70%, leaving the country with a murder rate of 2.4 per every 100,000.

The former "murder capital of the world" claimed earlier this month that the rate in 2024 presently now sits at two homicides per every 100,000. While Canada long had the lowest murder rate in the Americas, its rate has alternatively climbed every year from 2018 to 2022, such that it is poised to lose the top spot to El Salvador if it has not already.

To bring about the peace he referenced in his conversation with Carlson, Bukele's administration waged war on terroristic gangs, cracked down on some civil rights, and tossed 1% of the adult population in jail, citing proven and alleged gang affiliations.

"I can tell you the official formula [for busting the gangs] and the real formula," Bukele told Carlson. "So the official formula is that we did a plan ... that was comprised of phases. So we rolled out the first phase and then the next one, then the next one. And then gangs started attacking back, so we had to roll out everything at once."

Bukele noted that the accelerated crackdown prompted by the gangs' counteroffensive ultimately worked.

"In a couple of weeks the country was transformed because the gangs were not yet arrested but they were on the run," said the president. "We basically pacified the country in a couple of weeks.

To successfully execute each phase, Bukele indicated he doubled the size of the army and equipped it to effectively combat the gangs.

While effective strategy and force of arms were apparently the official formula for success, Bukele indicated the unofficial formula was prayer.

'Victory was because we won the spiritual war.'

"It's a miracle," said Bukele. "When gangs started attacking us back, basically, they killed 87 people in three days, which for a country of 6 million people is crazy."

Bukele said that this bloodletting made clear that the defeat of 70,000 gangsters, clearly willing to inflict maximum damage on the country's 6 million citizens, was an "impossible task."

The president told Carlson that at the time, he met with his security Cabinet and said, "We are looking into an impossible mission here, so we pray."

Sure enough, everyone present — all apparently believers — apparently asked God for wisdom, for minimal civilian casualties, and for support in their battle against MS-13, which Bukele underscored is a "satanic" gang.

"Victory was because we won the spiritual war," concluded Bukele. "Because [we] didn't have competition. I mean, they were satanic. I think that made it easier."

— (@)

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The Economist beclowns itself, recommending against adoption of El Salvador's successful anti-crime policies



The Economist claims to "produce journalism of sometimes radical opinion with a reverence for facts." Judging from a recent Economist article concerning Latin America's problems with crime, it appears the London-based publication might be short on reverence.

A May 8 article entitled "How to pacify the world's most violent region" kicks off with a note on crime in Durán, Ecuador, where the murder rate last year was 148 per 100,000 residents. The article suggests that Durán is the "worst example of a scourge that has brought misery to Latin America. Despite being home to just 8% of the world's population, the region accounts for a third of its murders."

The anonymous author suggested that to remedy such nightmarish states of play, Latin American leaders might reflexively resort to "mano dura, the iron fist."

'Officials from across the region praise and seek to copy what they call the "Bukele model." They shouldnt.'

While admitting that this tough-on-crime approach has recently worked, the Economist author concluded that the crime-fighting approach that transformed El Salvador from a gang-ravaged and blood-soaked battlefield into a nation with fewer murders nationally than Chicago experiences in a year is not worth attempting.

"Officials from across the region praise and seek to copy what they call the 'Bukele model.' They shouldn't," wrote the anonymous author.

The article has been slapped with a Community Notes fact-check on X and ridiculed by Bukele himself.

The 'Bukele model'

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, 42, was re-elected president earlier this year with over 83% of the vote. His party also swept the National Assembly, securing 58 out of 60 seats.

A large part of what has made Bukele so beloved and popular amongst Salvadorans is his approach to crime. Bukele regards violent crime as a cancer and gangs as "metastases" in need of excision.

Blaze News previously reported that there were 51 homicides per 100,000 in 2018, the year prior to Bukele's election. Under his leadership, the homicide rate had fallen to 7.8 by 2022 such that the country saw fewer homicides that year (495) than were reported in Chicago during the same time period (695).

According to Reuters, Salvadoran security authorities observed the number of homicides drop again in 2023, this time by 70%, leaving the nation with a murder rate of 2.4 per every 100,000, bested only by Canada. America's mortality rate, by way of comparison, is 8 per 100,000.

In order to bring about this end, Bukele's administration took extreme measures, admittedly cracking down on some civil rights and throwing over 1% of the adult population into jail. The anti-crime measures have largely angered foreign leftists such as Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and liberal publications, including the Economist.

The armchair critic's model

The anonymous Economist author stated as a fact that the Bukele model "undermines justice systems and leads to authoritarianism" then concluded it "will not work elsewhere."

The author reasoned that the Bukele-style crackdown worked in El Salvador but would alternatively fail in Mexico or Ecuador because of the caliber of the gangs, which have included MS-13.

The Economist did not go so far as to suggest criminal groups in other Latin American countries are impervious to bullets. Instead, it suggested they are "much richer and better armed and can often draw on help from foreign criminal affiliates. ... Such groups are unlikely to be defeated through force alone."

Instead of throwing violent criminals in prison or the ground, the Economist recommended the legalization of cocaine production and consumption. Recognizing, however, that is unlikely to happen, the anonymous author suggested that governments spare the gangs and bosses and instead "aim to discourage their most violent members from brutal acts."

In addition to creating government incentives for murderers not to keep murdering — citing Mexico as an exemplar — the Economist recommended leaning on police action contra military action; avoid mass incarceration; and keeping kids in school.

Backlash

When shared to X, the article was swiftly tagged with a community note linking to a Reuters article that highlights the precipitous drop in crime under the Bukele model.

Bukele responded to the article, which was captioned, "Gangs are gaining ground in Latin America. This is why iron-fist policies won't beat them back," with "We just did."

In addition to sharing the article, Bukele noted in a follow up, "There was a 70% drop in 2023… However, since the approval of the Exception Regime, there has been a 86% drop, and since we entered the government in 2019, the drop has reached 95%. We project a 97% drop for 2024."

There was a 70% drop in 2023\u2026\n\nHowever, since the approval of the Exception Regime, there has been a 86% drop, and since we entered the government in 2019, the drop has reached 95%.\n\nWe project a 97% drop for 2024.\n\nReceipts: https://t.co/SMlpyQcaf6
— (@)

Max Keiser, a senior adviser to Bukele and so-called Bitcoin bull, tweeted, "Restoring human rights for 6 1/2 million Salvadorans has virtually eliminated gang violence. El Salvador is now the safest country in the hemisphere. The Economist's blatant and grotesque act of journalistic malpractice here is mind boggling."

Blaze News columnist Auron MacIntyre responded, "The main purpose of the press is to lecture you about the evils of living in a well ordered and prosperous society."

The main purpose of the press is to lecture you about the evils of living in a well ordered and prosperous society
— (@)

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WATCH: El Salvador president warns Americans during bold CPAC speech



Just a few days ago, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele delivered a bold speech at America’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference. His warning against global elites, including George Soros, and other “dark forces” was welcomed with applause and cheers from a highly receptive audience.

“If [elites] want a seat at the table, they should run for office. Let the people vote. It will not be a pretty sight for them – if the elections are free and fair,” he said. “Who elected Soros to dictate public policy and laws? Why does he feel entitled to impose his agenda?”

“Soros and his cronies hit a brick wall in El Salvador,” he continued. “Thank God, another glory be to Him, Salvadorans are now immune to his influence. No one believes his lies any more.”

“In the span of less than a decade, gangs took control of all the country and our society. They evolved into a parallel government controlling elections and even political parties. ... Murder capital of the world – it’s a tragic title to hold.”

“Jumping out of the water when it's already boiling is an almost impossible feat. You are not there yet,” Bukele said in reference to America. “And believe me, you don’t want to be.”

After El Salvador “arrested terrorists” and began “removing corrupt judges, attorneys, and prosecutors,” it finally was able to begin the process of “cleansing” itself, Bukele told the audience.

The country also was forced to acknowledge the hard truth: “The corrupt system works in tandem with the so-called international community, the NGOs, and … the fake news.”

“Just like it happens here in the United States,” Bukele warned.

“El Salvador and a lot of places in South America are on their way out of that kind of corruption while [Americans] are stepping headlong into it,” says Keith Malinak, reiterating Bukele’s main point.

“Can you imagine back in the '80s and '90s us pointing to El Salvador's leader for inspiration on any topic?” asks Pat Gray.

To hear more, watch the clip below.


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Americans may not want to hear Tucker Carlson’s honest realization about Moscow



Tucker Carlson has not just come under fire for his recent interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin but for his praise of Moscow at the recent World Government Summit.

“What was radicalizing, very shocking, very disturbing for me was the city of Moscow,” Carlson told the audience, adding, “It was so much nicer than any city in my country.”

“It is so much cleaner, and safer, and prettier, aesthetically — it’s architecture, it’s food, it’s service — than any city in the United States,” Carlson continued.

Critics are calling Carlson “anti-American” for his comments, but Dave Rubin believes that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

“There are other places on this planet that are not having the problems that we are having,” Dave Rubin says, adding, “and many of our problems seem to be self-inflicted.”

Those problems, Rubin notes, are easily identifiable.

“We can also point out the reasons that our cities have crumbled: Democrat leadership, progressive policies, the World Economic Forum, George Soros, not actually upholding laws, allowing criminals to ransack streets and stores and things of that nature,” he says.

Carlson’s comments aren’t anti-American, they are exactly the opposite of that. Rather, they’re an observation of where America is failing and where it can be better.

Instead of pretending America is the greatest country in the world to live in, Rubin believes it’s time “we reverse that constant culture decline that we are in” by looking at our issues and trying to actually fix them.

“They have done something right,” Rubin adds, “that doesn’t mean you’re bowing to Putin.”


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Americans May Not Want to Hear Tucker Carlson’s Honest Realization About Moscow

Americans May Not Want to Hear Tucker Carlson’s Honest Realization About Moscow

Check out what Joe Rogan and Aaron Rodgers had to say about the media’s blistering attacks



Joe Rogan and Aaron Rodgers are no strangers to controversy. The fact that these two have dared to share thoughts contrary to those promoted by the radical left have resulted in both men being crucified by the liberal-owned media.

But that hasn’t stopped either of them from fighting the woke mind virus. Dave Rubin is encouraged by Rogan and Rodgers’ willingness to share their red-pilling experiences because it’s people like them who are encouraging others to “wake up.”

A couple of days ago, Rodgers, who the media has painted as a “conspiracy theorist” and a “racist,” was invited on “The Joe Rogan Experience” again to discuss Big Pharma’s iron grip on the narrative.

“They are f***ing controlling the message,” Rodgers said, adding that “the alphabet companies,” such as the CDC and the NIH, “have been lying and misleading the public for so long.”

Rodgers explained that the reason people, including himself and Rogan, get “slaughtered by the media” for speaking out or even questioning the narrative is because it’s Big Pharma “who’s paying [the media].”

“It’s corporate controlled,” agreed Rogan, and “it's not beneficial to the greater good of society.”

Dave remembers how, during the height of the pandemic, “they'd be covering COVID on NBC News, CNN, ABC, etc. and then they'd cut to commercial – ‘Brought to you by Pfizer.”

“Oh really? So you're taking money from the very people who you are supposed to be objectively talking about and criticizing where criticism is due?” he scoffs.

CNN specifically went to great lengths to villainize Rogan for his position on COVID. Dave plays an old clip from CNN of Rogan explaining how he used “ivermectin” and other tried-and-true medications to treat COVID next to the original clip Rogan posted himself.

In CNN’s version, Rogan’s face is a sickly shade of greenish-gray, whereas in the original clip, his coloring is completely normal.

“At the exact same time as all of this was unfolding, suddenly for two weeks the entire mainstream media was calling Joe Rogan racist because they unearthed videos of him saying the n-word even though he was not saying it in a racist way; he was saying it to mock the people who actually are racist,” Dave recounts, clearly showing the media’s obvious motivation to de-platform and defame Rogan for being a nonconformist.

On the subject of motivation, Rodgers had something to say about what fuels companies like CNN and people like Jimmy Kimmel, who also blasted Rogan on his show for taking “horse goo” instead of getting vaccinated.

“I lost friends, allies in the media [and] millions of dollars in sponsorship because I talked about what worked for me, my own beliefs, and my own health reasons [behind] why I didn't get vaccinated,” Rodgers explained.

“They vilified all early treatments,” including widely used ivermectin — a Nobel Prize-winning drug — because if they hadn’t, they wouldn’t have gotten “the [user acquisition].”

“The point of all this,” says Dave, “is that when you stand up, there is going to be a cost.”

Luckily, “the truth does work over time.”


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El Salvadoran president praises God and dunks on haters after landslide re-election



Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's tough-on-crime president, has been re-elected with 83% of the vote, leaving his "pulverized" opposition in the dust, roughly 70 points behind. The 42-year-old populist's New Ideas party also appears to have secured 58 out of the 60 seats in the National Assembly, which will enable Bukele to maintain the controversial state of emergency that has all but ensured the elimination of gang violence in the country.

Both in the lead-up to Bukele's landslide victory and in the days since, foreign leftists such as Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and liberal publications such as the Economist have concern-mongered about Salvadorans threatening democracy by exercising their civic right to elect Bukele to another term.

Bukele made sure to send such foreign critics a message in his victory speech Sunday night, stressing, "The Salvadoran people have spoken. And they haven't just spoken loudly and clearly; they have made the clearest statement in the history of democracies around the world."

Hours after telling reporters Sunday that El Salvador had overcome the cancer "with metastases that were the gangs" and is now set to recover and "be the person we always wanted to be," Bukele took to the presidential balcony with his wife, Gabriela, to the sound of REM's "It's the End of the World as We Know It."

After boasting about his latest accomplishment, Bukele gave a brief summary of the country's triumph over crime: "We have gone from being literally, and this is no exaggeration — it's not hyperbole — we have gone from being literally the most dangerous country in the world to being the safest country in the entire Western Hemisphere."

Blaze News previously reported that there were 51 homicides per 100,000 in 2018, the year before Bukele first entered office. The homicide rate dropped to 7.8 in 2022 under his leadership, such that El Salvador saw fewer homicides that year (495) than were reported in Chicago during the same period (695).

"We lived through 50 horrible years of wars and killing, and everything has changed," Ana Rodriguez, a 70-year-old voter, told the Economist.

The homicide rate in El Salvador last year was reportedly 2.4 per 100,000. Canada's, by way of comparison, was 2.25 in 2022, and the U.S. is pushing 8 per 100,000.

Bukele told thousands of his supporters Sunday, "[El Salvador is] the safest country in the American continent. And what did they tell us? 'You're violating human rights.' Whose human rights? The rights of the honest people? No. Perhaps we have prioritized the rights of the honest people over the criminals' rights. That is all we have done."

Rep. Omar and other Democratic lawmakers urged the U.S. State Department to lean on El Salvador ahead of its national election last week, noting in a statement, "President Bukele is amassing power and establishing authoritarian rule in El Salvador. The Members of Congress are urging the State Department to review its relationship with El Salvador and use America's diplomatic influence to defend democratic values."

"I ask these organizations, I ask the governments of these foreign nations, I ask these journalists: 'Why do you want them to kill us? Why do you want to see Salvadoran blood spilled? Why aren't you happy to see that blood doesn't run in our country as it did before?"continued the Salvadoran. "'Why should we die? Why should our children die? So that you can be happy that we are respecting your false democracy, which you don't even respect in your own country?'"

The president shared an anecdote about a conversation with a Spanish journalist who supposedly asked him why he wanted to "dismantle democracy."

"I answered: 'What democracy are you referring to? Democracy means the power of the people. Demos and kratos. That's where the word democracy comes from,'" said Bukele. "And if this is what the Salvadoran people want, then why should a Spanish journalist come and tell us what Salvadorans can and can't do? What democracy is he talking about? He's talking about the democracy that his bosses in Spain want."

Bukele suggested the alternatives were imperialism, colonialism, elitism, or plutocracy in disguise.

After telling off his foreign detractors, Bukele dismissed secularist anxieties, then praised God.

"We must give all glory to God," said Bukele, eliciting applause and cheers from the crowd. "Because what are we if not His instruments? We are all the tools of God. God chose to heal our country. ... We respect all religions; we respect atheists and agnostics. We are their friends, but let us believe in God."

Alluding to possible concerns over his religious statement, Bukele added, "Maybe the problem [of praising God] is that it sets an example. Because maybe the people in your countries who you have tried to indoctrinate into atheism will once again believe in God."

Félix Ulloa, Bukele's vice president, reportedly indicated that now that the government has "cleaned the house" of crime, the administration will make education, health, and infrasructure top priorities.

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