The Trump administration is fully backing the Salvadoran government’s authoritarian turn. After El Salvador’s congress changed the constitution last week to enable indefinite presidential re-election, a U.S. State Department spokesperson insisted that the process was “democratic and constitutionally sound” and rejected comparisons with "illegitimate dictatorial regimes elsewhere in the region.” The few opposition lawmakers that exist in El Salvador disagreed: right-wing congresswoman Marcela Villatoro declared after the vote that “democracy in El Salvador has died.”

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who used to refer to himself as “the world’s coolest dictator,” has repeatedly extended his power through dubious means. Since taking office in 2019, he has hammered away at the country’s democratic institutions through a series of authoritarian actions. In 2020, he used the army to storm the Legislative Assembly and threatened to dissolve it if lawmakers did not approve a loan for security equipment. The next year, after his Nuevas Ideas party dominated congressional elections, allied lawmakers illegally removed Supreme Court justices and the Attorney General. They were immediately replaced with party loyalists in what critics called a “technical coup d'etat." 

Months later, the country’s new Constitutional Court issued a ruling allowing for presidential re-election. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal later sanctioned the decision, despite the explicit language barring re-election in the country’s constitution. In 2022, Bukele announced he would run for re-election. In 2024, he won that re-election, though not without scores of radical electoral reforms meant to weaken the opposition, credible reports of widespread electoral fraud, a premature declaration of victory, and a state of exception that suspended constitutional guarantees and locked up tens of thousands of alleged gang members through mass show trials. 

After all this, it seemed unlikely that the government could do anything to become more authoritarian. But even amid an unprecedented crackdown on journalists, human rights activists, NGOs, and overwhelmingly innocent Venezuelan migrants in the months prior, last week’s vote represents a sharp acceleration of an authoritarian slide.

In addition to voting to allow indefinite re-election, lawmakers also extended presidential terms from five to six years and eliminated the country’s second round of elections, which was a far more democratic system. Supporters defended the changes by pointing out that lawmakers and local officials do not have term limits, and made arguments about the country’s sovereignty, as well as appeals to “let the people decide as many times as they wish.” 

The crucial backdrop to the entire discussion, however, is Bukele’s immense popularity. Indeed, after decades of brutal gang violence and disillusionment with the country’s main political parties, Bukele’s popularity is not a mystery. His crackdown on the gangs—while draconian, corrupt, and often illegal—has drastically reduced the country’s homicide rate. His self-presentation as a young, tech-savvy, anti-woke, faux-populist has, until now, been extremely successful as well—even as the economy has grown slowly and poverty has increased. In recent months, more than 85 percent of Salvadorans polled approved of him; only 1.4 percent were worried about the concentration of power in the hands of a single figure. 

Bukele has strategically positioned himself as one of Trump’s closest allies in Latin America. He offered his Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) to the United States as a site to house—and violently torture— deported Venezuelan migrants. In April, he backed the Trump administration during a visit to the White House, arguing that he could not return a wrongfully deported man to the United States, even after a judge ordered Trump to do so. In mid-July, he facilitated a prisoner exchange between the United States and Venezuela. In return for his loyalty, Bukele achieved a huge goal: the return of an MS-13 leader—who could have potentially testified against him in U.S. investigations—from the United States. This week he secured an even bigger victory: carte blanche to lead El Salvador for as long as he wishes.

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On March 12, the Argentine police responded to peaceful protesters with pepper spray, tear gas, rubber bullets, and water cannons. 114 people were detained and more than 20 people were hospitalized, including Pablo Grillo, a journalist who spent months in intensive care and nearly died after being shot in the head with a tear gas canister. This photo comes from an upcoming article on police repression in Argentina. (Santiago Ramírez Baquero)

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