Young people seduced by an anti-system | Nayib Bukele …

In yesterday's presidential elections in El Salvador, young people were the protagonists. His main demands were for greater security and more jobs in one of the most violent countries on the continent. It is Nayib Bukele, former mayor of the capital, who has seduced him widely and who could break with the bipartisanship that has alternated the leadership of the country of Central America for 30 years. At the end of this edition, the final results of the elections in which Bukele appeared as

favorite to succeed Salvador Sánchez Cerén, followed by the right-wing candidate Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (Arena), Carlos Calleja and Hugo Martínez of the left-wing Farabundo Martí for the Liberación Nacional (FMLN).

"It's really scary to go out alone in the street, you never know what can happen to you, so I think the one who wins in these elections should care about us, young people, give us more security because of so much violence, "said Gabriela. Solórzano, a 19 year old girl who yesterday went to vote in a school in the municipality of Mejicanos, which belongs to the capital, San Salvador. Mejicanos is considered one of the most fashionable municipalities in El Salvador, where gangs share control in many of its settlements. She explained that a year ago, she had graduated from high school and, although she speaks English, she has not found employment nor succeeded to enter the university because his parents can not afford it. "We dream that everything will change in this country, that we can work to pay the study, but the situation is disappointing," lamented Solorzano, who aspires to become an English teacher.

In another school in Ayutuxtepeque town, next to Mejicanos and also endowed with a strong gang presence, Rafael Vides, 23, was lining up to work in a call center. "We come to vote because it's a right, but also to make themselves felt, every vote counts.The situation needs to improve, I want to go out without thinking that they can kill me just to have visited a place where they do not know me, "said Vides after paying.

El Salvador recorded 3,340 homicides in 2018, down 15 per cent from the previous year, although its rate of 51 murders per 100,000 population is maintaining it as one of the world's most violent countries, not knowing the war. This figure far exceeds the global average of 5.3 homicides per 100,000 population in 2015, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The authorities attribute the majority of homicides to gangs, which number about 70,000, of which 17,000 are incarcerated.

Young people are the most exposed to gang violence because they are often forced to join their ranks and those who refuse to be recruited are forced to leave their homes with their families. According to polls, insecurity due to homicidal violence, generated mainly by gangs, and the weakness of the economy are the main challenges that the future government will face.

"I hope that the new president is aware of the need for more jobs and better wages because it is very difficult to find a job for the first time", says Ligia Mejía, 21 years old, proudly showing his finger stained with ink. voting On its small territory of 20,742 km2, this Central American country counts 33.3% of its 6.6 million inhabitants living in poverty and an unemployment rate of 7 points.

On this election day where the reduction of violence is one of the main demands, just over 5.2 million people were called to vote to elect the president and vice president who will govern El Salvador from 1 June 2019 to May 31. 2024. However, only about 40% of voters voted.

In a speech focused on the rejection of bipartisanship and anti-corruption slogans, Bukele, a businessman and former mayor of San Salvador, defeated young people with short, catchy phrases that became t-shirts. Money reaches when no one is stealing "Make it stolen. Bukele, 37, who defines himself as an antisystem, likes to wear jeans, colorful stockings and often a hat with a visor.More than another millennium, he has empathy for the young people with whom he remains Connected via social networks, so much so that he presented his proposals for the Facebook Live platform.

Bukele is the son of the late businessman Armando Bukele, a doctor of industrial chemistry and representative of the Salvadoran community of Arab-Palestinian origin. He studied law at the Jesuit Central American University of San Salvador, but his opponents questioned him about the fact that he had not graduated by pledging himself as soon as he left. 18 years old at work in a company of his father. He plays on his behalf the fact that he saved the company from bankruptcy where he was heading.

The Bukele family was sensitive to the principles of social justice that the FMLN left-wing guerrilla movement had used in the 1980s to provide shelter for some of its leaders, despite the risk of prison or even death. In this way, he inherited from his family sympathy for the former guerrilla war that, after the end of the 12-year civil war, became a political party in 1992.

In 2011, Bukele proposed to the FMLN to compete for the mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán, a municipality of 10,000 inhabitants located near the capital, where he entered the legislative elections in March 2012. In November 2014, in the As part of World Cities Day, the UN invited him to talk about his transformative management in Nuevo Cuscatlán.

Given its popularity, the FMLN appointed him to recover the office of the mayor of San Salvador, who was in the hands of the right, what he achieved for the period 2015-2018. As Mayor of San Salvador, his flagship projects were the lighting of the entire capital and the recovery and remodeling of part of the historic center of the capital.

Although the FMLN bases supported him for a second term, the party expelled him on October 10, 2017. The left-wing ethics court made the decision because he felt Bukele had "uttered verbal aggression" against the party. Councilor Xochilt Marchelli, who is currently facing a judicial process for gender-based violence.

Bukele, who had ensured in 2016 that he would not seek the presidency of the country with far-right formations, has left aside his political ideology to participate in the elections sheltered by a party founded in 2010 as a result of a division within Arena, the Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA). However, the former mayor has repeatedly pointed out that when he arrived at the presidency, he would govern independently of GANA – who had joined at the last minute last July to compete for the presidency – and that the leaders of this formation would not intervene in his functions. decisions.