LETTER FROM SAN SALVADOR
Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele frequently promotes the accomplishment on his social media accounts, often showcasing it using drone footage. However, it's not the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), Central America's largest prison for gang members, which he also frequently publicized on video, but rather a cultural project.
In November 2023, the head of state inaugurated a new national library, the Binaes, which, like CECOT, was called "the largest and most modern in Central America," open around the clock and every day of the year. Bukele was quick to point out that these hours of operations were possible "thanks to the security that now reigns in the country" following the incarceration of nearly 75,000 pandilleros (gang members).
Re-elected on February 4, the highly popular Bukele made this library a valuable tool during his campaign to promote his image as the "world's coolest president." The building is one of four donated to El Salvador by China. Under former Salvadoran president Salvador Sánchez Cerén (2014-2019), El Salvador broke off relations with Taiwan in 2018 and recognized the People's Republic of China as "one and indivisible."
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