El Salvador issued an order restricting how schoolboys’ hair should be cut, highlighting the government’s authoritarian turn.
President Nayib Bukele defended the “disciplinary measures” which come as he tries to reshape every facet of life in El Salvador.
Since assuming power in 2019, Bukele has overseen a drastic drop in murder rates, which has in turn boosted his popularity. The president has leveraged his standing to pass laws that give him a firmer grip on power, including scrapping term limits and restricting what the press can report on. Human rights advocates, meanwhile, warn that the crime crackdown has resulted in tens of thousands of innocents being caught in a dragnet.
