The magazine TIME reserved the cover of its latest edition for the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukeleand it includes an interview in which the controversial Central American politician promised that he will not run for a third term.
“I cannot run for president again, according to the Constitution because of the prohibition of Article 152. In addition, I have an agreement with my wife that this mandate is the last,” said Bukele.
He Salvadoran presidentwhose mandate ends in 2029, was referring to an article in his country’s Constitution that has been highly controversial in recent years due to how the leader of the Nuevas Ideas party managed to circumvent it to run for re-election.
The Constitution prohibits being president for two consecutive terms, and to get around that prohibition, in December 2023, the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador approved a request for Bukele to step down for six months and focus on the presidential campaign, thereby avoiding being legally considered a sitting president and thus running for another term.
Bukele also said in the interview with TIME who has not yet decided what his future will be after 2029, but is considering writing a book.
“It’s definitely going to be a challenge, because I don’t see myself returning to the company private (…) I really don’t have any thoughts on what I’m going to do in 2029,” he added.
People don’t see any direction on the left
Dressed in a dark jacket and shirt, and far removed from the appearance of millennial politician that I was trying to convey five years ago, Bukele appears on the cover of TIME with a confident expression and hands clasped on the table in the presidential office, with family photos in the background.
Read more: Economy, Bukele’s pending challenge
“I definitely do not consider myself either left nor of right (…) People don’t see any direction in the left. The right with its anachronisms and all, but at least it is proposing a direction. I’m not saying that, scholars of the left and many people say it,” he said when asked about his ideology.
“Between 8,000 and 9,000 gang members” to be captured
The high Bukele’s popularity It is based primarily on his war against gangs, criminal structures that, according to him, had 70,000 members – of which they have supposedly already captured 85 percent – and half a million collaborators.
“We estimate that there are still between 8,000 and 9,000 gang members on the streets (…) If we catch them, they will no longer have enough (means) to come together again,” he said.
He Bukele government In March 2022, a state of emergency began, which the Legislative Assembly dominated by the ruling party renews monthly, taking refuge in its fight against gangs, but suspending fundamental rights such as being informed of the reasons for an arrest or access to a lawyer.
Different organizations such as Amnesty International either Human Rights Watch (HRW) They point out that the Bukele administration has reduced the power of the opposition to a minimum, suppressing basic rights such as freedom of expression or legal guarantees such as due process.
The local non-profit organization Socorro Jurídico Humanitario estimated five months ago that more than 26,200 people had been arbitrarily detained without having any connection to the gangswhile HRW warned in July that more than 3,000 minors had been arrested during the state of emergency.