{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Piercing the Propaganda Bubble in El Salvador","description":"WOLA presents a new episode about El Salvador, coinciding with our awarding of our 2025 Human Rights Award to MOVIR, El Salvador\u2019s Movement of Victims of the Regime, which supports victims and families of arbitrary detentions carried out by President Nayib Bukele\u2019s government. In this conversation, Ricardo Valencia, assistant professor of public relations in the Department of Communications at California State University, Fullerton, explains why the current popularity of El Salvador\u2019s authoritarian president rests on a surprisingly fragile foundation. Dr. Valencia, a former journalist in El Salvador and an expert on political and activist communications, explains that Bukele is facing several challenges to his rule that even a slick propaganda operation cannot paper over. These include a lackluster economy, mainstream voters\u2019 discomfort with the regime\u2019s celebrations of cruelty and imprisonment, Bukele\u2019s relations with just one political party in the United States, the loss of emigration as an \u201cescape valve\u201d and a likely increase in deportations, and discontent with corruption. While Dr. Valencia doesn\u2019t foresee Bukele\u2019s downfall as imminent\u2014he is very popular because of security gains and effective communications\u2014the Salvadoran leader, he argues, is planting the seeds for a sharp drop in popularity. In the meantime, Valencia calls for constant, energetic accompaniment and defense of El Salvador\u2019s beleaguered civil society, independent media, and others fighting for democratic institutions and rights. ","author_name":"Latin America Today","author_url":"http:\/\/www.wola.org\/podcast\/","html":"