“It was never this confusing before”: Authoritarian technocracy and chaotic water governance in El Salvador

Abstract

On February 3, 2019, the popular and irreverent Nayib Bukele was elected president of El Salvador, vowing to return political power to the people and away from corrupt elites he called los mismos de siempre, or “the same as always.” Bukele quickly consolidated power in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, using his supermajority control to implement harsh security policies that allow law enforcement and courts to bypass due process and constitutional protections in the name of eradicating gang violence. While Bukele and his security policies remain popular, public polling shows that everyday socio-economic and environmental concerns are ignored. Meanwhile, highly unpopular decisions like making Bitcoin legal tender continue diverting public funding away from public services and towards privatized cryptocurrency infrastructure.

This paper explores the development of the Salvadoran state through an examination of Bukele’s approach to water governance amidst an ongoing water crisis. Previous governments followed traditional neoliberal or social democratic structures, but the Bukele administration presents a strange hybrid of ultra-authoritarianism, neoliberal austerity, and financialized water governance modeled after Silicon Valley tech companies. Though high-profile advertising promises efficient, streamlined models for addressing the water crisis, in practice, administrative institutions remain organized, chaotic, and unable to address the everyday water concerns of Salvadorans. Drawing on interviews and participant observation with Salvadoran government officials in the national water authority and environmental ministries, I argue that this digitized water governance mediated through an authoritarian state is an expression of a continued, but sclerotic, neoliberal global order.