Who Holds the Future of El Salvador? Nayib Bukele’s Path Toward Indefinite Power.

In a political system barely three decades old, the foundational pillars of El Salvador’s democracy are shifting with remarkable speed, and President Nayib Bukele appears to be standing firmly atop the rubble. Once hailed as a bold reformer and an enemy of corruption, Bukele is now facing accusations of authoritarian ambition following the rapid passage of a constitutional amendment that allows for indefinite presidential re-election.

On Thursday afternoon, in a move that stunned political analysts and democracy advocates alike, lawmakers from Bukele’s ruling New Ideas party pushed through a sweeping constitutional reform in just three hours. The measure extends presidential terms from five to six years, eliminates runoff elections, accelerates the next presidential vote to 2027, and, most critically, removes term limits altogether.

Fifty-seven of the 60 lawmakers voted in favor. Only three stood in opposition. No public debate, no committee review, no dissent allowed to breathe.

Assembly President Ernesto Castro characterized the measure as a democratizing tool. “The people will decide how long they want a leader to remain in office,” he wrote on social media. But opponents see it as the latest, and perhaps most defining, step in Bukele’s transformation of the Salvadoran state, from fragile democracy to something resembling autocracy.

“Democracy has died in El Salvador today,” said legislator Marcela Villatoro, one of the few voices of resistance left inside the legislature.

A Rapid Consolidation of Power

Bukele, 44, rose to power in 2019 on a wave of disillusionment. After decades of corruption scandals, criminal impunity, and the devastating grip of violent gangs, Salvadorans craved change. Bukele offered that and delivered in a way few expected.

His heavy-handed crackdown on gangs has earned him sky-high domestic approval ratings, with many citizens crediting him for a visible reduction in violence. The price, however, has been a deep erosion of civil liberties and due process. Tens of thousands have been detained under an extended state of emergency, many without formal charges. Independent media and human rights groups say they operate under increasing threat, if they have not already fled.

Soldiers patrol in front of the National Palace building at the Barrios square in the historic center of San Salvador on January 31, 2024. Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images

Bukele’s control over government institutions has been systematic. In 2021, his allies in Congress removed top Supreme Court justices and the attorney general, replacing them with loyalists. Within months, those same courts reinterpreted the constitution to allow him to run for re-election, despite an explicit ban on consecutive terms.

Critics say this week’s amendment was not just predictable, it was inevitable.

“Ever since that takeover of parliament, he clearly began to execute the dictators’ manual,” said Bertha Maria Deleon, a lawyer and former Bukele ally who later became one of his most outspoken critics.

A Muted Reaction at Home and Abroad

The most remarkable element of this political transformation may not be the boldness of Bukele’s moves, but the quiet acceptance surrounding them.

In El Salvador, there were no mass protests following Thursday’s vote. The news made front pages, but life went on. With government offices shuttered for a national holiday, the mood across much of the country was less insurrection than vacation.

To many Salvadorans, democracy, formalized in the 1992 peace accords that ended a brutal civil war, has failed to deliver. After years of political infighting and unchecked violence, Bukele’s unapologetic control offers a kind of stability. His dominance over the media and use of social platforms further allows him to set the national narrative with few challengers.

Internationally, the response has been tepid. Human rights organizations, including the United Nations, have raised alarms, but key regional players have remained largely silent.

The United States, once a vocal critic of authoritarianism in Central America, has offered no official condemnation. Bukele is considered a close ally of Donald Trump, who in April called him “one hell of a president.” An agreement struck in March to house Venezuelan deportees in Salvadoran prisons has further deepened ties between the two administrations. For some, that silence speaks volumes.

“The U.S. government is shielding the Bukele regime with its silence,” said Gina Romero, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly. “If this isn’t autocracy, what is?”

A Future Already Written?

With elections now moved up to 2027 and the opposition in disarray, Bukele faces few obstacles to extending his presidency into the next decade  and possibly beyond.

His critics fear a long-term entrenchment of power without the balancing force of a credible opposition or independent judiciary. But for now, with streets calm and approval ratings high, the president’s hold appears unshakable.

What remains uncertain is whether the very forces that once brought Bukele to power: frustration, despair, and a yearning for change, could one day turn against him.

For now, El Salvador’s future seems to lie in the hands of one man. And the door to the presidential palace is no longer revolving. It has been bolted open.

By I. Constantin