This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit katz.substack.comSubscribe and read the full transcript at TheRacket.newsIn his non-apology apology for his just-revealed years of genocidal racism, Richard Hanania made a brief allusion to a foreign leader few Americans have heard of, but who has become hugely popular on the far right.Nayib Bukele has been president of El Salvador since 2019; he has announced his intention to run again in 2024, despite a...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit katz.substack.com
Subscribe and read the full transcript at TheRacket.news
In his non-apology apology for his just-revealed years of genocidal racism, Richard Hanania made a brief allusion to a foreign leader few Americans have heard of, but who has become hugely popular on the far right.
Nayib Bukele has been president of El Salvador since 2019; he has announced his intention to run again in 2024, despite a constitutional ban on reelection. Just 42 years old, Bukele has been referred to as the “first millennial authoritarian”; in a Twitter bio he called himself “the coolest dictator in the world.” Bukele, so far, is most famous for two things: making Bitcoin one of El Salvador’s national currencies, and taking credit for reducing the country’s murder rate through draconian policing — or, as our good buddy Hanania called it, “the Bukele miracle.”
But is this “miracle” real? And why are America Firsters so into a Central American president of Palestinian descent?
To find out, I called Michael Paarlberg, a professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University, associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, and former senior Latin America policy adviser for Bernie Sanders’ 2020 campaign who has spent years researching in and writing about El Salvador. We talk about Salvadoran history and politics, Hanania’s alleged “small-l liberalism,” and the outsized role of U.S. imperialism—and the LAPD!—in the gang situation in that country.
You can listen to the subscriber-only conversation by clicking the play button above, or read the transcript below.
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