Young Latin Americans are unusually open to autocrats
A new poll suggests a worrying regional trend
In the latest edition of Latinobarómetro, an international poll in Latin America, respondents were asked to rate their approval of 17 named leaders on a scale of one to ten. In 15 of the 17 countries surveyed, Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s populist, autocratic president, got the highest score—on a list that included Pope Francis and Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president. Such broad international appeal has raised concern about the durability of liberal democracy in the region. Are Latin Americans outside El Salvador yearning for their own version of Mr Bukele?
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “What Latin America thinks”
From the July 22nd 2023 edition
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