The sun was about to set in El Salvador on a September day when President Nayib Bukele debuted his new passion project. Even by the demanding standards of Latin American political spectacle, it was astonishing. Dressed like a Napoleonic general in a gold-trimmed uniform, Bukele walked past soldiers with bayonets, unsheathed a sword and placed it on freshly unearthed human remains. In state-produced videos, Bukele told millions of followers on social media that an urn containing what remains of Francisco Morazán, a 19th-century Central American ruler, had just been placed in a crypt where it would be safeguarded “forever.” “Francisco Morazán was born Honduran,” Bukele said. “But he lived, fought and died as a Central American.” The spectacle brought new attention to Bukele, who destroyed democratic barriers, made mass arrests and reduced crime rates, all while enjoying enormous popular support. The Bukele-dominated Congress eliminated term limits, allowing him to remain in power indefinitely. While doing so, Bukele has become one of President Trump’s main allies in Latin America, transforming the small country into a hub for imprisoning deportees from the United States while trolling elected Democrats who oppose the Trump administration. Bukele has amassed so much power that the pageantry created a stir throughout Central America: Why was he unearthing a long-dead figure already resting in El Salvador’s most distinguished cemetery? Manuel Zometa, a constitutional law specialist based in El Salvador and a rare vocal critic in a system hostile to dissent, called Bukele’s new mausoleum an attempt to assert greater dominance over the country’s political landscape. “His popularity is starting to soften,” Mr. Said Zometa said, citing polls showing Bukele’s sky-high approval ratings falling slightly as economic concerns about rising inflation and unemployment intensify. “Faced with the diminishing results of his war on crime, he resorted to the manual tactic of exhuming a national hero.” Latin America has a rich tradition of political exhumations, and leaders use such rituals to further their own ambitions, regardless of how they might disrupt the long-buried’s search for tranquility in the afterlife. While Bukele governs from the right, he follows examples set this century prominently on the left. (Bukele’s representatives did not respond to a request for comment.) Hugo Chávez, the late ruler of Venezuela, unearthed liberation hero Simón Bolívar and then placed the remains in a colossal new mausoleum. Similarly, Rafael Correa, former president of Ecuador, transferred the ashes of Eloy Alfaro, a leader beheaded by a mob, to a new mausoleum. Bukele’s latest twist on this custom already appears to be paying political dividends. Guides say thousands of visitors enter the new mausoleum each day, located in a once-ruined hotel in the historic center of San Salvador, the capital. Crowds of street vendors have been removed from the high-security enclave. The surrounding streets appear to have been scrubbed and cleaned. A futuristic new $54 million national library gifted by China sits directly across from the mausoleum. Once inside the new climate-controlled crypt, guides explain the historical importance of Morazán. Soldiers in old uniforms try to remain motionless as they stand guard over the remains. Grecia Montserrat, 22, came with her mother to see what all the fuss was about. He had only a vague idea of who Morazán was, he said, because, in his opinion, leftist authorities had previously “only taught us to admire guerrillas.” Montserrat, a graphic design student, said she was impressed by the mausoleum’s freshly painted façade and the fact that the building is open most days, with free admission, until midnight. “All this makes me feel proud to be Salvadoran,” she said. Still, some historians have found Bukele’s decision to exalt the Honduran-born Morazán disconcerting, since El Salvador has traditionally revered another 19th-century ruler, the one born in Salvador. Gerardo Barrios, as founding father. Morazán was seen more as a regional leader due to his role as the force behind the Federal Republic of Central America, an attempt in the 1820s to merge the former provinces of the Spanish Empire into a single, sovereign state. That project failed and a firing squad of insurgent forces executed Morazán in 1842 in Costa Rica. He stipulated in his will that he wanted to be buried in El Salvador. But Morazán is also considered the founding father of neighboring Honduras, where that country’s main military academy, major plazas, boulevards, public schools and a week-long commemoration are named after him. Irritated by the new crypt, Honduran commentators called for Morazán’s remains to be repatriated and argued that Bukele was theatrically trying to raise his regional profile in a “He is shaping up to be a modern Morazán,” Honduran historian Jorge Amaya said in televised comments, maintaining that Bukele had even begun dressing in a style that channeled Morazán’s martial style, a move away from the backward baseball cap and sleeves. rolled up their previous appearance. Other doubts have arisen about the mausoleum. After Morazán’s execution, he was cremated and his ashes spent years dragged between different churches in El Salvador before finally being buried in 1858. But during a siege of San Salvador in 1863, forces loyal to an invading Guatemalan strongman are said to have desecrated, and possibly destroyed, the monument containing the ashes. “It is very difficult to determine at this time, some 180 years after the event, if these remains are really his,” said Alfredo Ramírez, a historian at the University of El Salvador. To those entering the mausoleum, these details seemed like background noise. Omar Sosa, 57, who said he fled El Salvador for the United States decades ago and now returns occasionally to visit, said he was overcome with emotion as he approached the crypt. Austin, Texas. “We were always the bad apple,” he said. “But now this country is an example for the world.”
