Buccaneer’s dream of expansion: President of Salvador promotes his brand in Central America | International

On May 17, El Salvador arrived in Guatemala with the mayor of Mystic, Neto Bran, to meet the president See here. Or at least that’s what he thought. The purpose of the trip was to present the President of Salvador Humanitarian demand for corona virus vaccines To your municipality. However, the mayor was not received and his government announced with three emoticons on Twitter four days before the petition was to be deposited at the Presidential Palace and wait to be presented to the President. Donated 34,0000 amounts To neighboring Honduras.

“Honduras thank you Buchale,” read dozens of Honduran banners waving as trucks with the Salvador government logo enter the Cotracho area with Astra-Geneca sizes. Listed as El Salvador’s communications secretary, “unprecedented”. It was a huge success for the president. Donation, as a measure, strengthened the image of a president who was different from his “predecessors”, the image he sought to sell since he entered politics: appealing, benefactor and close to the people. A picture that has reached not only his country, but also neighboring countries: Nicaragua, Hondurans, Guatemala and even Costa Rica are shown on social networks engraved with Buckeye since coming to power in 2019, where comments referring to him as president should be there for all to see.

Buccaneer has strengthened a strong figure in El Salvador, and has used his popularity to position himself above other powers in the state. In May, after his party won assembly elections, the majority of the ruling legislature was ousted All members of the Constituent Assembly And the state attorney, as a blow to the separation of powers, threatened it Will continue to take control of companies. While he is at home what critics see as a blow to companies, the president creates a personal brand that expands his popularity. A kind of right towards neighbors in a region burdened by violence, poverty, forced migration and corruption.

With the slogan ‘Made in El Salvador, but necessary in Central America’, Buckell marketed himself as a reaction and solution to these local evils on the Internet, especially on Twitter and now Dictok. That strategy works for him beyond his bounds, despite such questionable actions of his order Interruption in the military-dressed parliament, Feet to the magistrates, their cRusada against the Independent Press Or attacks on transparency to exclude its officials from accountability. “In Honduras, too, Buccaneer has become a Messiah,” says Jennifer Avila, director of the Independent Media. Opposite.

“His general position on President Juan Orlando Hernandez has generated sympathy among the population exhausted by the crisis. He must reconsider imposing himself as a dictator. “

Where some see crisis, Buckell sees profit

Donating vaccines to Honduras is a realistic adjustment of Buckell’s virtual love affair with Central America. Until then, Buccaneer’s “cold” image was popular in El Salvador because of his style of governing, but above all it was reflected on social media, where Guatemalas and Nicaraguans declare themselves fighters for their party, the Nuevo Ideas. . Some statements against dictatorial regimes such as Hernandez and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua were able to strengthen their image abroad. Reputation carved by drills on sites like Twitter and YouTube. Buckell’s personal brand is the take-off platform for more decisive action in Govt-19 epidemics.

Evil not only cited the provision of vaccines, but also sent Buickel to take an sick Honduran child by ambulance to a hospital in El Salvador for treatment. “After the request for vaccines, there have been calls for help with ports (to retain walls) damaged by tropical storms. The government has not repaired them for more than six months after the catastrophe. : ‘Where is the money?’ “, The journalist told The Country.

The old adage that where some see crisis, others see profit is very applicable to Buckell. For example, in July 2020, in the midst of a corona virus outbreak, The Embassy of Salvador in Managua Nicaraguan doctors fired by the Ortega government for criticizing their negligence in the face of COVID-19 were offered jobs in hospitals in that country. The Nicaraguan Medical Association later released a statement lowering the spirits of physicians: Promise This is not exclusive to doctors To that country, but to Latin America, under professional service agreements.

Gabriel Labrador, El Foro’s journalist, explains to EL PAÍs that since he began his political career in 2011, Bukele has also embarked on a career to “accumulate more and more power”. In that organization, the Salvador reporter says the Internet is important because it is an open space where people can constantly receive information. “There is no better way to use power and authority than information. Buckell uses the internet to promote his image, but he knows that everything has to be linked to the actions they use to connect. This is a political communication and marketing tactic. It carries out regional political activities that allow it to strengthen its efforts to infiltrate communities, ”Labrador said.

“United States Interlocutor”

Labrador says the United States saw him as a regional orator before Buckell intensified his dictatorship, removing the balance of power in El Salvador. However, when Joe Biden arrived at the White House, things changed because he called his vice president’s trip the so-called ‘Northern Triangle of Central America’, the main sending area for immigrants to the United States. Kamala Harris only visited Guatemala It excluded Honduras and El Salvador, which were isolated for drug trafficking, and its government criticized Washington for its dictatorial turns.

“This is a blow to the film that Buckell wanted to plan regionally. That is why, for example, he donates vaccines. He has to maintain an image in this global world of the Internet. That is why he is a wonderful user of YouTube, social networks, pages that constantly generate information from his government, a beneficiary from him. Labrador has a good financial manager, the idea of ​​being a good politician, but he’s always a politician who responds to the old structures: situation, institution, business and superpowers. “

In March 2020, a Nicaraguan public relations firm worked on a campaign paid for by El Salvador, which sought to highlight the Buccaneer government’s handling of the corona virus crisis. “They have asked for our support to record some of the criteria and influence that can tell us in about 20 seconds what they think of the actions that El Salvador has taken against the people we live in in Nicaragua. Those videos can be published there (El Salvador),” reads a Nicaraguan press release.

The idea of ​​the Central American Union

The utopian Central American Union stands alone in its strategy of capturing the Buckell brand. On several occasions, President Salvador has called for “Central America as a nation.” In his speeches he usually remembers the date of his independence from Spain. Although Buchail was mayor of San Salvador, he reformed the code of conduct for that municipality, and in 1834, when the countries of the region formed the Federal Republic of Central America, San Salvador was the capital for a time.

“I imagine you have this Simon Bolivar-like idea that unites people. Finally, give Central Americans a territory they have always wanted. He’s a short story about a man destined to liberate people,” says Labrador. All in all, the journalist believes that, like the late Hugo Chavez did, exporting his leadership to other countries “establishes himself under the idea of ​​domination and as the father of Salvadorans and Central Americans.”

“It’s like other dictators do: the way to do politics, the use of power and to show themselves as the only solution to problems. That’s why Buckle’s Twitter bio said ‘Leila’s father’. He doesn’t put a politician or a politician there, but wants to reinforce the idea that he knows how to take care of someone else. His wife also plays a key role, and every time he mentions it, he wants to show that he has this ability to take care of his people, ”Labrador analyzes, a vision that now seeks to export to the Central American environment.

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