Miami Herald: “The congresswoman’s voice should not be mingled with that of a wannabe dictator, no matter how ‘cool’ he says he is.”
Last weekend, María Elvira Salazar attended the inauguration of El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, congratulating him on both his win and his administration’s policies.
Meanwhile, Bukele is showing “clear signs of an autocrat consolidating power,” with the Miami Herald reporting that president has “declared states of emergency to bypass constitutional checks, detained thousands without charge under the guise of cracking down on gangs, and packed the Supreme Court to allow indefinite reelections.”
Salazar loves to posture as a defender of freedom, but she’s all too happy to back wannabe dictators when it suits her — like Bukele, and like Donald Trump. Despite Trump even vowing to be a dictator “on day one” and eagerly outlining his dangerous post-election agenda, Salazar couldn’t wait to endorse the now-convicted felon and his extreme agenda.
DCCC Spokesperson Lauryn Fanguen:
“María Elvira Salazar has long abandoned her moderate facade and has eagerly embraced her allies’ dictatorial agendas, both at home and abroad. When there’s political power to be seized, Salazar is proving she wouldn’t let anything stand in her way.”
As a Cuban-American congresswoman from Miami, María Elvira Salazar should understand firsthand the dangers authoritarian rulers pose in Latin America. Many of her constituents fled the harsh dictatorships of Fidel Castro in Cuba, Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela or Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua.
This makes her travel over the weekend to El Salvador to attend the second inauguration of controversial strongman President Nayib Bukele — along with a Republican delegation aligned with former President Donald Trump — concerning and baffling. Salazar, a staunch anti-communist and fighter for democracy in Latin America, knows better than to honor someone who calls himself “the world’s coolest dictator.”
“My congratulations to President @nayibbukele for earning a second term to represent his people. Miami and its Central American community have a partner we can work with from Congress to successfully crush the gangs threatening our Hemisphere. ¡Felicidades, Presidente Bukele!” Salazar wrote on Instagram on Saturday.
An editorial in El Faro, a digital newspaper in Central America, said of the inauguration: “A dictatorship is born.”
That’s because the Salvadoran constitution prohibits presidents from seeking second, five-year terms, but, in 2021, Bukele and allied lawmakers dismantled the constitutional court, removing the obstacle for his reelection. Bet that in five years he’ll run again. Granted, Bukele was reelected with 85% of the vote.
Trump and other Republicans have adopted Bukele as a Latin American ally. Also attending the inauguration was Donald Trump Jr., Florida U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz and former Fox News star Tucker Carlson.
Salazar, who was largely elected because of her hardline stance on the Cuban dictatorship, should know better than to support another power-hungry Latin leader in a region that is being courted by Russia and China more than ever. Other Cuban-American congressional members did not make the trip to El Salvador.
Salazar is ignoring the fact that some Salvadorans accuse Bukele of systematically dismantling Salvadoran democracy. He has declared states of emergency to bypass constitutional checks, detained thousands without charge under the guise of cracking down on gangs, and packed the Supreme Court to allow indefinite reelections. These are clear signs of an autocrat consolidating power.
Salazar knows better than most that strongmen of the Bukele ilk mature into full-fledged dictators who repress their people. And if she defends democracy in Cuba and in the U.S., she should also defend it in El Salvador.
Salazar knows well the suffering people endure under rulers who concentrate power in their own hands. To endorse Bukele goes against the democratic values Salazar champions.
