Available From UC Press

A searing profile of El Salvador’s most powerful man, by a journalist he forced into exile.

Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s president since 2019 and a man who markets himself as his country’s savior, has become a standard-bearer for the Right across the Americas. But while his highly publicized crackdown on gangs has improved public safety and fueled his popularity, it has also obscured the profound democratic breakdown happening under his rule.

Writing from exile after facing arrest for his journalism, Óscar Martínez presents an uncompromising portrait of the dictator behind the global political phenomenon. As editor in chief of El Faro, the news outlet Bukele targets most, Martínez has overseen investigations exposing corruption, human rights abuses, and criminal pacts within the regime. Here, in a series of sharply drawn scenes, he turns his attention to Bukele’s most defining yet least told characteristics. Frank and laced with sarcasm, The Naked Emperor exposes Bukele without pretense: as an all-powerful authoritarian whose carefully cultivated image masks a deeply ridiculous and ruthless politician.

“Óscar Martínez is easily one of the best journalists working today, and he has reported on Nayib Bukele with his trademark depth and rigor for years. Now, exiled by Bukele because of that work, Martínez has written a brilliant book that transcends time and place.”—Jonathan Blitzer, author of Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis