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What do Presidents Nayib Bukele and Javier Milei have in common?

What do Presidents Nayib Bukele and Javier Milei have in common?

Presidents Nayib Bukele in El Salvador and Javier Milei in Argentina are united by conservative visions of politics: both came to power using a strong discourse against the elites, and currently, together with a disruptive personality, they coincide in their positions against the press and humanitarian organizations, according to analysts.

So far both leaders have been seen together twice: the first meeting was in San Salvador, when Bukele assumed office second term in June of this year. The second occurred this week, with the visit of the Salvadoran to the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires, where he was received by Milei and a large part of his cabinet.

The Salvadoran’s visit also led to the signing of agreements related to security, the economy, culture and nuclear energy.

Milei praises Bukele’s war against the gangs and the reduction of the homicide rate in the Central American country. And he has shown signs of wanting to replicate his model of incarceration and megaprison in Argentina.

On the other hand, analysts believe that Milei has sought to respond with a story that his government is making history in economic issues, despite the fact that the data reflects an increase in the level of poverty.

The similarities

Polls say that Bukele is one of the most popular presidents in Latin America, with more than 80% acceptance in El Salvador.

Milei, although not close to Bukele’s popularity percentage, has made headlines for his controversial positions.

“There are certain ideological affinities, with a strong conservative tendency regarding national issues, cultural ethics and other currents of Latin American thought such as progressive visions,” he told the Voice of AmericaEugenio Chicas, Salvadoran lawyer and former magistrate.

In his speech before the UN Assembly, Milei said that this body left behind the principles of its founding, and became a “multi-tentacled Leviathan that seeks to decide not only what each Nation-State should do, but also how they should do it.” live all the citizens of the world.”

A position that is similar to that of Bukele, who on other occasions has demanded that these organizations stay out of Salvadoran politics.

In 2019, when he made his debut as Salvadoran president before the UN, Bukele assured: “The new world is no longer in this General Assembly,” and He demanded that the block do things differently.

Today, it has been its most popular security policy, the exception regimewhich has led Bukele to clash with international human rights organizations.

“They don’t care about the death of honest people. They would only come to the defense of the murderer if the State does its job and takes him off the streets. There they will go out and ask for good treatment and ‘reintegration’ for that disgusting rat,” Bukele said on August 11, 2023, in his X account.

El Salvador became the most violent country in the region with a rate of 105 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Today, Its homicide rate is the lowest in the region with 2.4 homicides.

Despite the drastic measures, criticized by legal and human rights organizations, which have asked El Salvador to repeal this measure, it was in the Bukele government that the operation of the gangs was managed to be dismantled, the main demand of the population. Salvadoran.

Although controlling security against gangs imposes much greater challenges than in Argentina, Milei has shown interest in that security model.

In mid-June, the Minister of Security of Argentina, Patricia Bullrich, was in El Salvador to learn about “the zero tolerance regime” that Bukele maintains against gangs, in an effort to “eradicate narcoterrorism” in that country.

Today, Milei’s government follows the rhetoric of its counterpart in El Salvador, highlighting provinces such as El Rosario, in Santa Fe, about 300 kilometers from Buenos Aires, with zero homicides. A milestone that he attributes to his alliances with Bukele.

Another of the similarities that unite the leaders is their form of communication: via social networks and seeking a direct message with their citizens, without the intervention of the press.

Milei has called journalists “corrupt”, “enveloped” and “extortionists”; and has accused the media of having a “monopoly on microphones.”

While in El Salvador, there is constant “harassment of critical media,” says a Reporters Without Borders report which placed the Central American country in position 133 out of 180 as one of the countries in which press freedom is under threat.

“Since he became president in June 2019, President Nayib Bukele has attacked and threatened journalists not related to his government,” the report mentions.

In addition, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) concluded that the Bukele government blocks access to public information, intimidates independent media and spies on journalists.

“If Bukele and Milei have something in common, that constant attack on the press that oversees their governments,” he added to the VOANapoleon Campos, expert in international politics.

Advantages in the alliance

But the closeness of their governments is not the only thing that unites these politicians. Bukele has said that he considers Milei his friend and now hopes that he will also be his ally.

For Campos, that alliance makes more sense, because Bukele needs diplomatic alliances due to the circumstances in which he rose to power again.

In El Salvador, the continued re-election of the president was prohibited by the Constitution. It was the intervention of the Supreme Court imposed by Bukele’s legislative bench that endorsed his re-election.

Others consider that this alliance benefits it because El Salvador seeks to boost its economy over the next five years, something that Milei started with when he came to power.

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