I spoke with CNN about Nayib Bukele's recently election in El Salvador. Most of what I said can be heard in the SECOLAS podcast recorded last week.

"Bukele's considered a populist, an outsider candidate who ran against the system. He says that he comes from the left, but he had to join a political party of the right to run."

There's an effort to try to place Bukele in the overall context of Latin America. The two terms most frequently used to describe him seem to be "outsider" and "independent." He is a two-term mayor, including one term as mayor of the capital for the FMLN. He was expelled from the FMLN and then had to look for an electoral vehicle to allow him to campaign and win in 2019. His election to the presidency didn't come out of the blue but it was difficult to guess the eventual path.

While he headed the GANA ticket, Bukele has no interest in representing GANA. He has his own Nuevas Ideas party to build. At the same time, GANA does not appear to have any interest in making Bukele their own either. Both parties say that they did not engage in any quid pro quo prior to or during the campaign. However, GANA's Will Salgado thinks that he and Bukele agreed that GANA and Nuevas Ideas would form a coalition to support him in the 2021 San Miguel mayoral elections.

It is unclear whether any other side deals were made and too early to tell what the two parties' relationship might look like the next two years before the mayoral and legislative elections. Bukele doesn't have much legislative support and even if he did work with GANA legislators it wouldn't be enough. Fortunately for Bukele, his overwhelming victory might make the FMLN and/or ARENA more likely to work with him so as to build some momentum before 2021. At this point, obstructing Bukele's legislative agenda doesn't appear to have much upside.

I spoke with CNN about Nayib Bukele's recently election in El Salvador. Most of what I said can be heard in the SECOLAS podcast recorded last week.

"Bukele's considered a populist, an outsider candidate who ran against the system. He says that he comes from the left, but he had to join a political party of the right to run."

There's an effort to try to place Bukele in the overall context of Latin America. The two terms most frequently used to describe him seem to be "outsider" and "independent." He is a two-term mayor, including one term as mayor of the capital for the FMLN. He was expelled from the FMLN and then had to look for an electoral vehicle to allow him to campaign and win in 2019. His election to the presidency didn't come out of the blue but it was difficult to guess the eventual path.

While he headed the GANA ticket, Bukele has no interest in representing GANA. He has his own Nuevas Ideas party to build. At the same time, GANA does not appear to have any interest in making Bukele their own either. Both parties say that they did not engage in any quid pro quo prior to or during the campaign. However, GANA's Will Salgado thinks that he and Bukele agreed that GANA and Nuevas Ideas would form a coalition to support him in the 2021 San Miguel mayoral elections.

It is unclear whether any other side deals were made and too early to tell what the two parties' relationship might look like the next two years before the mayoral and legislative elections. Bukele doesn't have much legislative support and even if he did work with GANA legislators it wouldn't be enough. Fortunately for Bukele, his overwhelming victory might make the FMLN and/or ARENA more likely to work with him so as to build some momentum before 2021. At this point, obstructing Bukele's legislative agenda doesn't appear to have much upside.

I spoke with Steven Hyland and Carlos Dimas yesterday about this past weekend's election in El Salvador. Carlos and Stephen host a podcast for the Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies.

In this episode, professor of political science Michael Allison discusses  the February 3, 2019 presidential election in El Salvador. With Nayib Bukele from the GANA party emerging as the victor, Bukele is the first candidate since the end of the Civil War not from the two dominant political parties. Allison offers what this election means for not only El Salvador and Latin America, but the Americas as a whole. 

You can listen to our discussion here.

I spoke with Steven Hyland and Carlos Dimas yesterday about this past weekend's election in El Salvador. Carlos and Stephen host a podcast for the Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies.

In this episode, professor of political science Michael Allison discusses  the February 3, 2019 presidential election in El Salvador. With Nayib Bukele from the GANA party emerging as the victor, Bukele is the first candidate since the end of the Civil War not from the two dominant political parties. Allison offers what this election means for not only El Salvador and Latin America, but the Americas as a whole. 

You can listen to our discussion here.

My typical response is oh no, not another gangs and the Church article from El Salvador. However, Danny Gold put together a really good article on The Redemption of MS-13 for The Pulitzer Center. The title is misleading as it focuses on the relatively small number of Salvadoran gang members who have successfully desisted from gangs, rather than redemption of the organization itself. The article is also very similar to Danielle Mackey's A Boundless Battlefield for the Intercept.

One of the few ways that gang members desist from gangs is through the Church. However, it is not always clear what getting out means, more specifically whether getting out is permanent. One can be called back to duty if gang leaders wish it to be so. There is also the fact that, for a variety of reasons, one is still at risk of torture or death from one's own gang, other gangs, police and security forces, and clandestine groups. Once a gang member, always a gang member. Life is hard for Salvadorans in general, even more so for former gang members often shunned by families, employers, the state, and society at large.

For an academic look inside Salvadoran gangs I highly recommend recent articles from Jonathan Rosen and Jose Miguel Cruz on Overcoming Stigma and Discrimination: Challenges for Reinsertion of Gang Members in Developing Countries and Rethinking the Mechanisms of Gang Desistance in a Developing Country. Greg Weeks also interviewed Jonathan recently for his podcast.