To understand where Trump is trying to take the US, we should look to the authoritarian playbook of his favorite ally: El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele

One afternoon last year, Donald Trump welcomed “a friend” to the White House – El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, the world’s most popular authoritarian. “I knew him as a very young man,” the US president said before the cameras. “He’s done a fantastic job. Mr President, it’s an honor to have you.”

Since March 2022, when gangs in El Salvador murdered 87 people over a weekend, Bukele has maintained a state of emergency in which key civil liberties are suspended and 2% of the adult population has been jailed – about 100,000 people, at least half of whom are probably not gang members, say local rights groups. The narrative of “the Bukele miracle” – that he swiftly dismantled fearsome gangs and restored order – has made him an icon across Latin America, where a new host of rightwing leaders have sought to replicate his heavy-handed tactics. And in the US, Bukele’s overnight success as a strongman has made him a hero of the American right.

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© Illustration: Guardian Design / Getty Images

© Illustration: Guardian Design / Getty Images

© Illustration: Guardian Design / Getty Images

El Salvador had sent hundreds of troops to find the four men, who disappeared six days ago. The president of El Salvador denied the bodies were those of his soldiers.

© Michael Anthony Adams/The New York Times

Nayib Bukele’s notoriously harsh and wildly popular security crackdown in El Salvador is spawning imitators and remaking the region.

© Fred Ramos for The New York Times

Nayib Bukele’s notoriously harsh and wildly popular security crackdown in El Salvador is spawning imitators and remaking the region.

© Fred Ramos for The New York Times

Four members of El Salvador’s military were abducted Sunday in Haiti, and their president wants them back.

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A U.N.-backed force sent to combat gang violence said it was looking for the soldiers, who were in a gang-controlled area when they were attacked.

© Michael Anthony Adams

Temporary Protected Status for the two countries was set to expire on Monday. The Trump administration said an announcement would be made “at the appropriate time.”

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Three thieves broke into a private museum in central France and took off with a 330-pound book cover created by the surrealist master Salvador Dalí.

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Sword in hand, Nayib Bukele is revamping Latin America’s rich tradition of political exhumations. A new crypt projects his power across Central America.

© Fred Ramos for The New York Times

Lawyers warn that the mass trials of people imprisoned during President Nayib Bukele’s gang crackdown are marred by vague evidence and restrictions on a proper defense.

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