How to build a police state | William Wheeler

To understand where Trump is trying to take the US, we should look to the authoritarian playbook of his favorite ally: El Salvador's Nayib Bukele

One afternoon last year, Donald Trump welcomed a friend" to the White House - El Salvador's Nayib Bukele, the world's most popular authoritarian. I knew him as a very young man," the US president said before the cameras. He's done a fantastic job. Mr President, it's an honor to have you."

Since March 2022, when gangs in El Salvador murdered 87 people over a weekend, Bukele has maintained a state of emergency in which key civil liberties are suspended and 2% of the adult population has been jailed - about 100,000 people, at least half of whom are probably not gang members, say local rights groups. The narrative of the Bukele miracle" - that he swiftly dismantled fearsome gangs and restored order - has made him an icon across Latin America, where a new host of rightwing leaders have sought to replicate his heavy-handed tactics. And in the US, Bukele's overnight success as a strongman has made him a hero of the American right.