By now, it's undeniable that El Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele’s strategy to subdue the maras in El Salvador has been nothing but overwhelmingly successful. Maras is the specific term for the MS-13 and B-18 gangs, indicative that they are in their own category of organized crime in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
Following 10 months of having implemented a legal state of exception, Salvadoran security forces and intelligence communities have gradually, and effectively, targeted and dismantled the power structures of the blood-thirsty maras that made El Salvador one of the most violent countries globally.
Unfortunately, for the ever-dissatisfied and acrimonious left, the tens of thousands of lives saved, millions of U.S. dollars kept away from criminal structures, and the peace and security extending throughout El Salvador are just unfortunate truths in the way of their anti-Bukele and anti-Central America narrative.
For decades, the maras dominated the streets of El Salvador, extorting, stealing, raping, and killing the citizens of the small Central American nation.
Added to that — corrupt, and apathetic governments, in cahoots with private sector and NGO (non-governmental organizations) profiteers decimated government coffers for personal benefit.
The results?
Poorly funded security forces, and little opportunities for social development.
Ironically, while those corrupt governments, negotiated murder quotas not to be surpassed by the maras, in exchange for allowing them to operate, local and global NGOs, activist groups, and news outlets - that now berate, and belittle the success of Bukele’s war on the maras, back then kept mostly silent.
Unsurprisingly, the same NGOS, activists groups, media outlets and governments remain silent about actual human rights violations being committed in Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, etc.
What seems to be ignored by first world countries (aka donor countries), led by the United States; and including Canada, Germany, and others, is that the Central American people right now are more concerned about their security, an economic downturn, and growing inflation than the feel-good, liberal policies of misery that they, multilateral organizations, and their "preferred implementation partners," are trying to force upon their nations.
Furthermore, these donor countries, and their academic laden, sanctimonious bureaucracies, fail to notice (or acknowledge) that their ideologized policies towards El Salvador, and the region, and the liberal programs that they have spent billions of dollars trying to implement, have brought nothing but resentment towards them.
These same ideologized policies have even worsened the situation in the region.
Ironically, the billions of U.S. dollars spent in the past few years, have very little to show for it. There has been an increase in illegal migration, and an increase in narcotics flow.
There has also been a failure of their "anti-corruption" pet projects, and even more worrisome, insignificant installed capacities to help the region develop.
To make matters even worse, there is no transparency, and accountability with respect to how these billions of dollars were spent (or wasted would be a better word).
Their effort to provide accountable information stops at the amounts disbursed to the different "preferred implementation partners" (think: a good-ol'-boy network of NGOs).
There is no transparent and detailed accounting as to how they spent it.
Regardless of the unfounded bickering, and crying wolf by the global left and Salvadoran profiteers, the success of Bukele’s war against the maras is proving to be two-fold.
First, he has proven that each country needs its own strategy to counter the threats that affect them. President Bukele has successfully (yet not purposefully) shown that when a job is done for the sake of the people, there is no need for special foreign advisers, UN policing programs, or global "verification" outfits to behold the "mote" in El Salvador’s eye.
This is not to say that there is no need for assistance. There is.
This is especially so when it has been the politicized, history-rewriting rhetoric, and narrative of leftist politicians (of the donor countries) which have prevented the national security forces in the region to grow as well as acquire the necessary capabilities to counter modern threats.
Secondly and most importantly, President Bukele has made the war against the maras accountable to the most important stakeholder, his constituency, the citizens of El Salvador.
There is no denial that Bukele’s war on the maras has been a success.
A battle-royal verified and supported by an approval rating of 90% by El Salvador's population. This reflects the highest approval rating of any world leader currently in office.
Despite all the accusations of human rights violations by his detractors, there weren’t any accusations of police brutality in El Salvador during the COVID-19 pandemic, unlike what was seen in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and Australia.
There exists plenty of video evidence (on the internet) of the abuses committed by their security forces, under orders to subdue the citizenry into obeying the emergency measures to contain COVID-19.
It's ironic, that those countries constantly beholding the "mote" in other nations’ eyes regarding human rights, were the first ones to stick a monumental beam of police brutality in their own eye, just to ensure they could maintain control over the population; the most developed and critical countries were the ones that committed the most abuses during COVID-19.
PS.: There could have been a miscalculation of "FORM" when the Salvadoran military accompanied President Bukele into the chambers of the Salvadoran Congress to get the deputies to vote on the loan to equip the security forces.
However, the barbarism of the maras’ attack on their citizenry required a show of determination, against those politicians who thought they could hold El Salvador's security for ransom. With an extreme situation at hand, with maras killing close to 90 Salvadoreans in a span of 48 hours, the security and lives of Salvadorans demanded extreme measures.
Mario Duarte is co-founder and CEO of DH Global Strategy, a global consulting and lobbying firm. He is the youngest and longest serving Secretary of Strategic Intelligence to hold office in Guatemala. His professional credentials include more than 18 years of experience in the fields of intelligence, national security, consulting, and strategy development in several countries. Follow Mario Duarte on Twitter and Instagram: @marioduartegar. Read Mario Duarte's Reports — More Here.