President Donald Trump marked a diplomatic milestone this week, placing his first official call to a Latin American leader since his January 20 inauguration: El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele.
The White House lauded Bukele’s “unmatched security leadership”, crediting his anti-gang policies for transforming the once violence-riddled nation into the safest country in the Western Hemisphere (homicide rate: 1.9 per 100,000 in 2024).
The call signals a strategic alignment between Trump’s “America First” agenda and Bukele’s “Iron Fist” governance, with both prioritizing border security and transnational crime crackdowns.
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Bilateral Ties: A Republican Embrace of Bukele’s Vision
The Trump-Bukele partnership is rooted in years of GOP admiration:
- June 2024 Inauguration: Donald Trump Jr., alongside his partner Kimberly Guilfoyle, attended Bukele’s second inauguration as special guests, symbolizing conservative solidarity. Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL), a vocal advocate for hardline security policies, also joined, calling El Salvador’s transformation “a lesson for the Americas”.
- GOP Champions: Figures like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) have long endorsed Bukele’s strategies. Gaetz visited El Salvador in 2023, praising its “zero tolerance for Marxist ideologies”, while Rubio highlighted Bukele’s alignment with “pro-growth, anti-crime values”.
- Prudent Diplomacy: Despite skipping Trump’s January 2025 inauguration (after being invited), Bukele’s decision reflects his balanced foreign policy, avoiding overt partisan alignment.
Results That Resonate: Security, Migration, and Economic Stability
Bukele’s state of exception (in place since 2022) has yielded historic outcomes:
- Crime Collapse: Gang-related murders plummeted from 103 per 100,000 in 2015 to under 2 in 2024. Over 75,000 alleged gang members are jailed, including leaders of MS-13 and Barrio 18.
- Migration Shift: Illegal Salvadoran crossings at the U.S. border dropped 82% since 2021, per DHS data. Bukele attributes this to “hope at home”, as citizens no longer flee gang extortion.
- Economic Resilience: Despite predictions of a GDP crash due to mass arrests, El Salvador’s economy grew 3.5% in 2024, fueled by tourism, Bitcoin adoption, and stable remittances ($7.3B from Salvadorans in the U.S.).
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Critics and Context: A Controversial Blueprint
While human rights groups condemn Bukele’s mass detentions and “erosion of judicial independence“, even skeptics acknowledge the paradox of Salvadoran support: 92% of citizens back his policies (CID Gallup, 2024).
Interestingly, these same organizations and NGOs (“human rights groups”) have been known to remain silent when crime destroys or ends the lives of innocent people, but when criminals start getting arrested, they raise their voices and dedicate themselves to defending the criminals.
The U.S. State Department, under Biden, criticized Bukele’s reforms but has cautiously shifted tone under Trump, calling the call a pragmatic step toward shared security goals.
Why This Matters: A Regional Model in the Making
El Salvador’s success has turned heads globally:
- Latin American Leaders: Honduras and Ecuador have adopted similar anti-gang measures. Although the measures were only partially implemented, they did not take into account that the security plan is complex and involves more than just enforcing the “state of exception.”
- U.S. Strategy: Trump’s executive order designating gangs like Tren de Aragua as “terrorist organizations” mirrors Bukele’s playbook. It’s important to remember that in El Salvador, gang members had already been classified (2015) as terrorist groups within the judicial system years before Bukele took office.
- Soft Power: Bukele’s Bitcoin gamble and “Surf City” tourism projects aim to rebrand El Salvador as innovative and open for business.
