El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele takes aim at critics in looking ahead to 2nd presidential term

By MEGAN JANETSKY
Associated Press

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele is savoring what appears to be a landslide presidential reelection victory. And he’s railing against the press and international critics. The populist leader has declared himself a harbinger of democracy, not the case study for 21st century autocracy that some fear. Bukele says El Salvador hasn’t known democracy until now, but he acknowledges that his vision of that ideal is distinct from the norm. Bukele told thousands of cheering supporters Sunday night, “It will be the first time in a country that just one party exists in a completely democratic system,” adding that “the entire opposition together was pulverized.”