The Bukele effect in Latin America challenges the press
The issue of public security is occupying more and more space on the press agenda in most Latin American countries, at the same time that is increasing the number of politicians sympathetic to the shock treatment against organized crime proposed by Nayib Bukele, president of the Central American republic, of El Salvador.
We are gradually being led into a complex situation because the intensification of news coverage of the public security crisis increases people’s level of anxiety by worsening the feeling of individual and collective insecurity. This inevitably allows impactful solutions to emerge, such as the one that gave rise to the so-called “Bukele effect” that has already spread to countries such as Ecuador, Honduras, Argentina and Peru.
Bukele, 43 years old, gained global notoriety for launching extremely violent repression against Salvadoran criminal mafias known as “maras”, using the army and police to invade poor neighbourhoods to capture suspects, most of whom were identified based on tattoos. The Salvadoran president’s repressive strategy was complemented by the construction of a mega-prison for 40,000 inmates, built in just seven months, which gave the country the dubious title of having the highest concentration of prisoners per inhabitant in the world.
The fashion for mega prisons
Much of the worldwide visibility obtained by Nayib Bukele came through reports and interviews in the press, which contributed to the measures he proposed ending up affecting public opinion across almost the entire continent. Inevitably, populations frightened and trapped by the increase in urban and rural insecurity end up preferring simple solutions to an extremely complex problem.
There is still no evidence that Bukele’s repressive formula has managed to neutralize the advance of organized crime in El Salvador. But despite this, the governments of Ecuador, Honduras and Peru have already announced plans for the serial construction of mega-penitentiaries, almost all of them following the Salvadoran model. Public managers pressured by the climate of fear and anger generated by headlines about crimes have chosen a quick solution as a way to calm voters.
This also leads, almost inevitably, to the growth of ultra-conservative tendencies within civil society, a phenomenon facilitated by the protection-at-any-cost syndrome. A situation is thus created where the role of the press and journalism becomes enormously important because public communication assumes the role of the main conveyor of information on which the conduct of citizens and governments in matters of public security will be based.
Trying to dry ice
The big problem is that combating the spike in violence rates in most large cities in Latin America is a complex initiative because it involves issues that most people prefer to ignore. Most of the task of avoiding the increase of public anxiety and reducing social n created by organized crime ends up on the media's shoulders because it is the conveyor of news to the citizens. It’s a very delicate position. The press cannot be charged for the street violence nor the strengthening of the máfias and militias but is an irreplaceable part of the search for a solution.
The increase in violence is a direct and indirect result of the growth of economic inequality and social uncertainty in all Latin American countries. The more misery and socioeconomic contrasts, the greater the incentives to violate laws and regulations in an attempt to correct by extralegal means what the laws do not allow. Without combating inequality, it will hardly be possible to eliminate delinquency and organized crime, because this would be equivalent to drying the ice, according to a Brazilian saying.
All of us journalists know this and have been in situations like this more than once. The problem is that now the social and political dimensions and consequences are much broader and deeper due to the intensity and speed of news flow through social networks. We are in the eye of the hurricane of public insecurity, a phenomenon that is increasingly becoming endemic in Brazil and Latin America.
The press and journalism are running out of many options when covering organized crime. They cannot be lenient because this is equivalent to distancing themselves from a frightened public that demands harsh measures. And don’t even assume the role of champions of Bukele’s solution, because this reinforces ultra-conservative tendencies in the social environment. It may seem utopian, but the alternative of systematically linking the phenomenon of violence to its causes and consequences may still be the best solution for journalism in the current situation.
