El Salvador President Nayib Bukele ordered police via social media on Monday to arrest five heads of bus companies in the Central American country after they defied his order to offer free transport for a week following a major highway closure.
The order was another example of Bukele's heavy-handed tactics. The second-term leader has been accused of undermining democratic institutions, punishing dissenters and denying access to due process under a “state of emergency” that he declared in 2022 to battle the country's powerful street gangs. Despite the crackdown, the government has denied the country is a police state.
