A.I. Shakira Lands in El Salvador

<p>During Shakira’s nine-day residency in El Salvador, thousands of military and police guarded concerts, public employees and prisoners cleaned, and the Tourism Ministry used an A.I. Shakira to promote the Historic Center of San Salvador.</p>

Víctor Peña

CENTRAL AMERICAN LENS is our photo of the week in the El Faro English newsletter. Subscribe here.

A detachment of 3,000 soldiers and police guard Jorge Mágico González Stadium during Shakira’s visit to El Salvador this month, where she gave five concerts on her world tour, “Las mujeres ya no lloran” (Women Don’t Cry Anymore).

What was a series of private concerts became state policy during her nine-day stay in El Salvador. Incarcerated Salvadorans in the “trust phase” and employees of the San Salvador City Hall divided up the cleaning.

[newsletter]

It was a private show like others in El Salvador for years — but this time carefully recorded by photographers from Casa Presidencial. The government claims Shakira injected $110 million into the economy, but offered no evidence.

National radios posted photos created with artificial intelligence, pretending to have interviewed the star. The Ministry of Tourism used A.I. images of Shakira peddling through the Historic Center of San Salvador.

A.I. Shakira visited cafés, the National Theater, the Palace, and the National Library, where she stopped by to read a book.

The real artist, meanwhile, received the keys to the city of San Salvador and was praised by the ruling party. But no real photos were published with any officials, the mayor, or President Nayib Bukele himself.