At forty years old, El Salvador’s millennial millionaire president has projected an international image as a youthful and irreverent Silicon Valley–style disrupter. Nayib Bukele made headlines by snapping a selfie during his first address at the United Nations, then made his country the only in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.

But beneath this vacuous techbro veneer, Bukele’s government has a deeply authoritarian character. The president, who has enjoyed persistently high approval ratings despite his unconstitutional consolidation of executive power, now faces a growing opposition movement amid deepening economic and political crises.