El Salvador’s president summons the army to bully congress

NAYIB BUKELE, the president of El Salvador, draws notice outside his country for his youth, his jet-black beard and his mastery of social media. Now his authoritarianism is a trending topic. The sight of Mr Bukele entering the National Assembly on February 9th, alongside soldiers toting machine guns, shocked onlookers at home and abroad. He plonked himself in the empty chair reserved for the president of congress. “I liked seeing those empty seats,” he tweeted. “It made it easier for me to imagine them full of honest people who work for the people.”

Congress accused the president of staging an “attempted coup”. The Constitutional Court rebuked Mr Bukele. El Faro, a Salvadorean news website, called his stunt “the lowest moment that Salvadorean democracy has lived in three decades”. He retorted, not very reassuringly, “If I were a dictator, I would have taken control of everything.”