Rumored Trump VP hopeful Salazar should know better than to support self-acclaimed dictator | Opinion
As a Cuban-American congresswoman from Miami, María Elvira Salazar should understand firsthand the dangers authoritarian rulers pose in Latin America. Many of her constituents fled the harsh dictatorships of Fidel Castro in Cuba, Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela or Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua.
This makes her travel over the weekend to El Salvador to attend the second inauguration of controversial strongman President Nayib Bukele — along with a Republican delegation aligned with former President Donald Trump — concerning and baffling. Salazar, a staunch anti-communist and fighter for democracy in Latin America, knows better than to honor someone who calls himself “the world’s coolest dictator.”
“My congratulations to President @nayibbukele for earning a second term to represent his people. Miami and its Central American community have a partner we can work with from Congress to successfully crush the gangs threatening our Hemisphere. ¡Felicidades, Presidente Bukele!” Salazar wrote on Instagram on Saturday.
Equally perplexing is that President Joe Biden also sent a delegation to Bukele’s inauguration, led by Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. Just three years ago, Biden barred Bukele from the White House because of his constitutional abuses. Have the administration’s principles changed on the self-acclaimed dictator?
Both the Democratic and Republican delegations attended what some Salvadorans consider Bukele’s illegitimate second term. An editorial in El Faro, a digital newspaper in Central America, said of the inauguration: “A dictatorship is born.”
That’s because the Salvadoran constitution prohibits presidents from seeking second, five-year terms, but, in 2021, Bukele and allied lawmakers dismantled the constitutional court, removing the obstacle for his reelection. Bet that in five years he’ll run again. Granted, Bukele was reelected with 85% of the vote.
Trump and other Republicans have adopted Bukele as a Latin American ally. Salazar was among a tight group of Trump supporters attending the inauguration, led by Donald Trump Jr.. The group included Florida U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, Utah Sen. Mike Lee and former Fox News star Tucker Carlson and their partners.
Trump and his supporters are enamored with Bukele because of his tough stance on crime. He has declared war on violent gangs taking over the Central American country, but some say in that crime-fighting fervor human rights violations have occurred with Salvadorans landing in jail arbitrarily, based on their appearance and where they live. Both Biden and Trump likely view Bukele as a cog in the U.S. border immigration solution. Migration from the Central American country dropped by 60% since 2019, the Associated Press reported.
Salazar, who was largely elected because of her hardline stance on the Cuban dictatorship, should know better than to support another power-hungry Latin leader in a region that is being courted by Russia and China more than ever. Other Cuban-American congressional members did not make the trip to El Salvador.
Salazar’s invitation may stem from the fact her name has popped up as a possible running mate for Trump.
But Salazar is ignoring the fact that some Salvadorans accuse Bukele of systematically dismantling Salvadoran democracy. He has declared states of emergency to bypass constitutional checks, detained thousands without charge under the guise of cracking down on gangs, and packed the Supreme Court to allow indefinite reelections.
These are clear signs of an autocrat consolidating power. Yet Salazar tweeted that “We need a Bukele in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.”
Salazar knows better than most that strongmen of the Bukele ilk mature into full-fledged dictators who repress their people. And if she defends democracy in Cuba and in the U.S., she should also defend it in El Salvador.
Asked for comment on her trip, Salazar was firm in her support of Bukele and strongly rejected any comparisons to Castro:
“Bukele holds free and fair elections, engages with the press, respects the rule of law, supports religion, is rebuilding the private sector, ending gang violence, and is the most popular democratically elected leader in Latin America,” Salazar wrote in a statement to the Editorial Board.
What if she’s wrong about Bukele?
Salazar knows well the suffering people endure under rulers who concentrate power in their own hands. To endorse Bukele goes against the democratic values Salazar champions.
As a fighter for freedom, the congresswoman’s voice should not be mingled with that of a wannabe dictator, no matter how “cool” he says he is.
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This story was originally published June 5, 2024 at 12:37 PM with the headline "Rumored Trump VP hopeful Salazar should know better than to support self-acclaimed dictator | Opinion."