Is Bukele still El Salvador's savior? Not for all abroad

Boston Globe

18-04-2025

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It's a sentiment I've heard echoed across the local Salvadoran community. An
Bukele's decision to accept deportees from the United States —
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Another local Salvadoran, a former believer of '
While it's hard to measure a broader shift in public opinion, there are signs that the tide may be turning. 'I have been noticing more criticism and disappointment with the Bukele approach in social media comments, especially from people here in the US,'
Valencia believes the case of
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Still, whether disillusionment will evolve into organized opposition against Bukele remains unclear.
'Salvadorans have been living in insecure conditions for over 20 years,'
That's the story many still hold on to, both in El Salvador and abroad. Bukele, the man who brought order. In fact, Cuéllar told me, there's a kind of sinister pride in seeing Bukele 'help the United States' by incarcerating deportees. 'People think that looks good on El Salvador as a country,' he said.
I asked Cuéllar whether this moment complicates how we think about US Latinos as a group, particularly after their swing to the right in last year's election. He pointed out that Salvadorans in the United States are often still framed as political refugees, shaped by the sanctuary movements of the civil war era. 'But many of these folks have always been conservative.'
The picture gets murkier when you factor in that a lot of Salvadorans were granted asylum during the Reagan and Bush administrations. 'That also creates a certain kind of gratitude,' Cuéllar said. 'A lot of affiliations are forged through the very kind of processes of belonging and inclusion into the US. That puts people on different paths.' With Bukele, it's been clear he's always been close to Trump and the American conservative space — as a
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'There's a way that conservatives have been able to tap into the specific country's politics,' Cuéllar said. 'Oftentimes, that's what is driving the Latino voter in the United States. They're thinking about politics back home.'
In other words, for some Salvadorans in the United States, a vote for Trump is an indirect vote for Bukele. But as Bukele's actions begin to clash with the realities of the diaspora, the illusion of alignment might be cracking. The man once seen as El Salvador's savior is, for many abroad, starting to look more like someone else's strongman.
This is an excerpt from
, a Globe Opinion newsletter from columnist Marcela García.
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Marcela García is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at