SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia – During the final days of 2021, the populist president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, began reaching out to China as an economic life raft while foreign policy in the small Central American nation underwent a subtle, but important shift. Primary among those changes was a noticeable cooling trend developing with the United States. Historically, El Salvador has had a strong relationship with Washington. Though last November, the resignation of the top U.S. diplomat in El Salvador, Jean Manes, ended up being an unintentional harbinger of worse things to come. The U.S. Department of the Treasury in December slapped financial sanctions on three senior Salvadoran officials, all of whom have close personal ties to Bukele. In addition to a growing economic reliance on China and a tense period in relations with the U.S., some of Bukele’s authoritarian maneuvers have also created concern within the international community. Seeking …