'It's Concerning to See Candidates Offer the Bukele Model' - 08/09/2026 - World - Folha de S.Paulo

The so-called "Bukele model," promoted as a response to violence in El Salvador, has gained ground in Brazil’s electoral debate. Presidential candidates have begun citing it as a reference in the fight against organized crime.

For 55-year-old Carlos Dada, co-founder of the newspaper El Faro, the showcase of the Cecot megaprison conceals a system marked by mass arrests and restrictions on rights.

The newspaper Dada runs documented the government of Nayib Bukele’s pact with local gangs to bring down homicides, but was forced to leave El Salvador after facing pressure and persecution.

Today, from exile, Dada is watching with concern as the model is received in Brazil. "I was concerned that so many candidates in Brazil are offering the Bukele model as a solution," he told Folha.

Brazilian presidential candidates invoke the so-called "Bukele model" as a reference in the fight against organized crime. What is this model?

It is the use of security forces to carry out arbitrary and mass arrests, without the need for court orders or charges against the person.

Once arrested, you are taken to a prison where you cannot receive visits from either family members or lawyers and where, as a rule, family members are not even informed of your whereabouts.

If you are lucky, you go to trial before an anonymous judge who will decide your legal status along with 100 or 200 other people.

Why did the newspaper El Faro leave El Salvador?

Our revelations led them to completely shut down access to public information. We exposed the government’s pact with the gangs and the scandalous cases of corruption, which basically amount to the plundering of the state. This turned us into one of the most inconvenient voices for Bukele’s political rule.

I cannot. Independent journalism began facing threats and direct attacks from the police. I was personally accused of money laundering by Bukele on national television. El Faro was accused of tax evasion.

Given this situation, all, or almost all, independent journalism is outside the country.

How do you explain the fact that the Bukele government has around 90% approval among the public?

When Bukele’s pact with organized crime ended in 2021, he then decided to mobilize all the forces of the state to dismantle those gangs. And that was effective. In fact, he dismantled them.

What happens is that, because the arrests were not targeted but indiscriminate, it is true that they arrested a lot of gang members. But it is estimated that two-thirds of those caught were innocent.

Even so, that took the gun that had been pointed at many people simply because they lived in those communities out of their heads. If you combine that with what is probably the best propaganda team in all of Latin America, the result, at least as far as his political ambitions are concerned, is very effective.

Is Bukele’s pact with the gangs to force a more than 90% drop in homicides in the country a fact? If so, how did it work?

The pact is absolutely documented. Bukele offered benefits in exchange for two things. That they stop killing one another in order to reduce homicide rates and allow him to present those figures as a triumph of his security plan. And, on the other hand, that they help him win the legislative elections that were coming because they control the populations in their territories and their votes. And also the presidential elections, which he won.

I would now say that I do not see any possibility, in the short term, of Bukele leaving power.

He has already crossed the threshold separating wanting to remain in power from being unable to leave power. When you cross that line, it means that, if you leave power, the rest of your life will probably be very complicated. And Bukele is already at that point. He has already committed too many crimes.