The following podcast contains advertising.

To access an ad-free version of the LawFair podcast,

become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash law fair.

That's patreon.com slash law fair.

Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings,

rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath.

There might be some human rights violations, but we get security and we get safety.

And it tells like when presented with that trade-off,

a majority of Salvadorans have said, yeah, we'll take it.

We'll take it and we'll like it.

And that's has all sorts of implications, certainly for democracy and for human rights.

But as far as I can tell again, and acknowledging that our access to data and information is really limited,

but as far as I can tell based on these sort of surveys, that seems to be what's going on.

I'm Quinteduristic, a senior editor at LawFair.

And this is the LawFair podcast, May 9, 2023.

Since March 2022, El Salvador has been under a state of exception,

as its president, Nayib Bouquetle, seeks to crack down on the country's powerful gangs.

Bouquetle, who once described himself on Twitter as the world's coolest dictator,

has engaged in a prolonged attack on El Salvador's democratic institutions,

and the crackdown has resulted in a range of human rights abuses.

At the same time, Bouquetle really does seem to have been successful in curbing gang violence,

and his popularity is sky high.

...