El Salvador Perspectives

Nayib Bukele completes his first five years as president of El Salvador having fully earned the label as a "populist autocrat." Populist , because he has gained power by developing enormous popularity in the Salvadoran public through an extraordinary propaganda and public image machine, and autocrat because he and his party Nuevas Ideas have accumulated the total power to govern in the country after having eliminated each and every institution which might provide checks or limits on Bukele's power. The tactics Bukele used are a true  dictator's playbook . Undermine the press Bukele started early to eliminate checks and balances by seeking to undermine the role of the press as a watchdog in a democratic society. Before he even took office as president, he was telling the public that impartial journalism does not exist : @NayibBukele Tweet April 20, 2019 That those of the media who presented themselves as "independent" are going out now with a clear and t...

  El Salvador is at the end of its first three years with  a Legislative Assembly controlled by Nayib Bukele and his Nuevas Ideas (NI) party.  These were three years which had a dramatic impact on Salvadoran democracy.  Here are some of the major steps of the NI-controlled Assembly: 1. Deposed the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Judicial Court .  On its first day in power, May 1, 2021, the NI-controlled Assembly removed all of the magistrates of the Constitutional Chamber, the country's highest judicial authority. It removed the magistrates all at once, without giving them notice or the opportunity to be heard.  2.  Appointed new friendly judges to the Constitutional Chamber.    On the same night it purged the Chamber, the Assembly elected a new slate of judges completely ignoring the process in the constitution for appointing new judges. 3.  Deposed the attorney general .   Still on the same night that the Asse...

National elections in El Salvador which could consolidate one party rule by Nayib Bukele in El Salvador have already begun.   A period of internet voting for Salvadorans living in other countries has kicked off an electoral process which will likely see Nayib Bukele re-elected for an immediate second term, despite a constitutional prohibition of the same.  Voters are also electing deputies to the Legislative Assembly. Because there is voting, it will be called "democracy," but at the end of the elections, the populist authoritarian ruler of El Salvador will have consolidated all political power to himself.          Internet voting for the Salvadoran diaspora outside of the country began on January 6.    According to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), 120,634 Salvadorans had voted in this fashion as of January 24.  Their votes for deputies in the legislative assembly are being allocated as if they lived in the department of San S...