Lawfare Archive: El Salvador’s President Cracks Down on Gangs—and Democracy
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 21 June 2025
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From May 9, 2023: Since March 2022, El Salvador has been under a state of exception as its President Nayib Bukele seeks to crack down on the country’s powerful gangs. Bukele, 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, Bukele really does seem to have been successful in curbing gang violence, and his popularity is sky high.
To understand the situation in El Salvador, Lawfare Senior Editor Quinta Jurecic spoke with Manuel Meléndez-Sánchez, a PhD candidate in Political Science at Harvard University who has written about Bukele on Lawfare. They discussed why Bukele’s crackdown on the gangs seems to be working, why it might fall apart in the long term, and what Bukele’s rise means for democracy in El Salvador and around the world.
To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/lawfare-institute.
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising. |
| 0:04.4 | To access an ad-free version of the Lawfare podcast, become a material supporter of Lawfare at |
| 0:11.5 | patreon.com slash lawfare. That's patreon.com slash lawfare. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out Lawfare's other podcast offerings, Rational Security, Chatter, |
| 0:25.2 | Lawfare No Bull, and The Aftermath. |
| 0:33.5 | Hey, it's Adam Grant from Worklife, a podcast from TED. This episode is brought to you by FreshWorks. |
| 0:40.1 | FreshWorks believes the complexity is the enemy of efficiency. |
| 0:43.3 | So stop wrestling with bloated expensive service software that takes forever to implement an update, |
| 0:48.4 | where ROI is someday, not today. |
| 0:51.1 | You've been overcharged and underserved for way too long. |
| 0:54.8 | Uncomplicate with fresh service for IT and fresh desk for customer support. |
| 1:00.0 | And with FreshWorks AI-assisted service software, you'll work smarter, not harder. |
| 1:05.1 | FreshWorks uncomplicates. |
| 1:07.3 | Learn more at freshworks.com. |
| 1:23.2 | Music Learn more at freshworks.com. I'm Mary Ford, intern at Lawfare, with an episode for the Lawfare Archive for June 21, 2025. |
| 1:31.3 | Protests in LA last week sparked national conversation surrounding President Trump's immigration policies. |
| 1:37.6 | The case of Kilmah-Obrego-Garcia, a Maryland resident who was deported to El Salvador and held without trial in the notorious Salvadoran maximum security confinement center has been particularly fraught. |
| 1:50.0 | Obrigo Garcia was returned to the United States on June 6th, nearly three months after being deported to El Salvador. |
| 1:57.0 | But during that time, Salvador and President Naïve Buckele made headlines the United States over his partnership with the Trump administration. |
| 2:05.1 | What is Buckele, who has referred to himself as the world's coolest dictator, getting out of this partnership and what do things look like inside El Salvador? |
| 2:14.2 | For today's archive episode, I selected an episode from May 9th, |
| 2:18.3 | 2023, in which Quinta Jurecic sat down with Manuel Melendez Sanchez, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Lawfare Institute, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Lawfare Institute and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.