By: Staff Writer
August 8, 2023
With El Salvador’s presidential election slated for next year February, its President, Nayib Bukele is seeking a second term on the strength of his gang crackdown in the Central American country.
Bukele has made a name for himself with his hard stance against criminal gangs, with critics saying that it has come with great cost to the democratic fibre of the country.
He has clamped down on the gangs since taking office in 2019, reducing homicides, lifting his approval rating above 90 per cent and winning him admirers across Latin America. So much so that analysts are concerned that his hard-line position against criminal gangs may spread through the rest of Latin America.
Despite the suspension of civil liberties and allegations of abuse in El Salvador, politicians in neighbouring countries like Honduras and Guatemala have praised President Nayib Bukele as a model worth emulating.
That admiration is not confined to one end of the political spectrum. In Honduras, left-wing President Xiomara Castro announced her own crackdown on gangs that
drew comparisons to El Salvador’s. And in Guatemala, former right-wing presidential contender Zury Rios called El Salvador a “model for reference”.
Bukele’s popularity has bolstered his bid to be re-elected in February 2024 despite a previously long-held ban on leaders serving a second continuous term.
He was officially nominated by his New Ideas party last month to run for reelection next year, brushing aside objections from legal experts and opposition figures who say El Salvador’s constitution prohibits his candidacy.
Constitutional lawyers maintain that Bukele’s candidacy would violate at least four articles of the constitution, including Article 154, which states: “The presidential term will be five years and will begin and end on June 1, without the person who has held the presidency being able to continue in their functions even one more day.”
While constitutional bans on re-election were once common in Latin America — where some countries have a history of “caudillo” strongmen perpetuating themselves in power — those term limits have been removed, overturned or ignored in a number of cases, including Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Bolivia.
Bukele, who maintains approval ratings above 80%, has led a crackdown on the country’s powerful street gangs that has landed more than 60,000 people in jail on suspicion of gang ties.
Despite suspending some fundamental rights for more than a year, the measures have been widely popular. Communities that lived under the constant extortion and violence of the gangs are returning to life.
Regardless of the legal hurdles Bukele has to jump over, his popularity in El Salvador is undeniable as he has gotten results with his attempts to rid the country of the violent street gangs that have not only wrought havoc on the country, but their impact could be felt through the Northern United States.