The Minister of Education ordered the dismissal of the director and deputy director of a public institute shown in a video shared by President Bukele. On Monday, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele defended the new discipline rules in the education system, saying they aim to prevent schools from becoming “gang recruitment centers.”
Since August 20, under the orders of the new Minister of Education, Captain Karla Trigueros, students must keep their hair short, wear clean uniforms, and polished shoes—measures that a teachers’ union has described as the “militarization” of the country’s 5,100 public schools.
Bukele said that before his “war” against gangs—launched in 2022 and credited with reducing criminal violence in the country—schools were “places where gang members recruited.”
“The discipline measures in schools are meant to prevent this tragedy from happening again,” he wrote on the social platform X. “That’s how schools in our country used to be,” Bukele added in the same post, sharing a video showing students at the National Technical Industrial Institute (INTI) in San Salvador flashing gang hand signs. The video did not specify when it was filmed.
This is how our schools used to be in El Salvador: recruitment centers for gang members.
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) August 25, 2025
And they weren’t just any gangs, but the most bloodthirsty in the world.
Today, many mothers weep for their children in prison; others, for those in the cemetery or still missing.… pic.twitter.com/aPy8xfTvVO
In that same context, Minister Trigueros announced Monday night on X that she had ordered the dismissal of the INTI’s director and deputy director for appearing in the video Bukele shared.
The dismissal of INTI director Óscar Manuel Melara and deputy director Eliezar Otoniel Delgado was ordered after “confirming that they are the same officials from the time shown in the video shared by the president,” Trigueros said.
The minister added that starting Tuesday, INTI “will have new authorities.” Before Bukele’s “war” on gangs, the MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs pressured students to join their ranks and threatened teachers to prevent them from reporting gang activity.
The new rules must be enforced “no matter how much criticism we receive,” said the president. On Sunday, Trigueros added new rules of “school courtesy” to the disciplinary measures, and students who do not comply risk having to repeat the school year.
The courtesy rules, which take effect September 1, include greeting teachers when entering the classroom, saying “please” when making requests, and saying “thank you.” A student with 15 demerits “will not be promoted to the next grade,” ordered the minister, though sanctions may be reduced through tasks such as “cleaning and order” duties and other activities.
Principals who fail to enforce the rules will be sanctioned, warned Trigueros, who often wears camouflage uniforms. Bukele remains highly popular in the country for reducing criminal violence to historic lows with his “war” on gangs, which relies on a state of emergency that allows detention without a court order.
The state of emergency has been criticized by human rights groups, who claim thousands of innocent people have been jailed.
