El Salvador approves changes to let Bukele extend presidency indefinitely

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele could stay in office indefinitely after his allies in the legislature changed the country’s constitution Thursday night to allow a president to serve an unlimited number of terms.

Bukele, who dubbed himself “the world’s coolest dictator,” has in recent months pushed the Central American nation further into autocracy as he has aggressively consolidated power, including through a judicial ruling that allowed him to seek re-election in 2024.

Advocates and watchdogs decried Thursday’s vote and subsequent ratification as the loudest alarm yet that he is setting himself up to rule the country far beyond the end of his current term, and said the move reverses one of the few checks left on power in El Salvador.

“This is an effort to establish a dictatorship in El Salvador,” said Juan Pappier, deputy director for the Americas at Human Rights Watch. “He’s very clearly following the path of … leaders who use their popularity to concentrate power to undermine the rule of the law and eventually to establish a dictatorship.”

The move also extends presidential terms from five years to six and schedules legislative elections at the same time as the presidential contest, among other changes to how Salvadorans vote.

The Legislative Assembly took less than two hours – with no debate – to first vote through the changes and then formally ratify them in a special session called just moments later in a chamber where his ruling party enjoys an absolute majority.

Bukele has gained wide popularity in El Salvador, once one of the most dangerous countries in the Western Hemisphere, since he was credited with dismantling the country’s gangs and overseeing a major reduction in violence. His support helped him win reelection in a landslide last year.

Watchdogs, however, say he has also taken steps to suppress what little dissent remains in El Salvador, where he already controls all government institutions. His efforts to clamp down on violence have led to the imprisonment of tens of thousands of mostly young men, with little due process.

Lawyers, researchers and human rights defenders have fled the country in recent weeks amid the arrest of some prominent critics of his presidency and new laws targeting nongovernmental groups.

El Salvador’s constitution previously banned presidents from serving consecutive terms. Bukele was able to run – and win – last year after his party purged the Supreme Court and its handpicked new justices allowed him to run for a second, five-year term.

Pappier said the move closely resembles past efforts by current or former authoritarian leaders in Latin America, such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez or Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, who used their elected office to maintain an iron grip on power for far longer than they were initially elected.

Noah Bullock, executive director of the human rights group Cristosal, said the move is a major warning sign. His organization announced in July that it was fleeing El Salvador for other parts of Central America after the arrest of prominent Bukele critics.

“Ruling indefinitely is the aspiration of all autocrats, and reforming the constitution to achieve that is a well-known method in the autocratic handbook,” Bullock said.

Legislators in Bukele’s party had framed the effort as meant to return power to the people and away from laws. “But it clearly tips the scale in favor of the ruling family,” Bullock said. “Indefinite presidential reelection is antithetical to democratic governance.”

In addition to scheduling presidential and legislative elections at the same time, the constitutional changes will remove a second-round voting system that requires any winning candidate to earn a majority of votes, rather than a plurality.

The changes’ easy path was due to other efforts taken by Bukele’s party earlier this year. The Legislative Assembly changed rules around constitutional changes so that they could be voted on and then ratified by the same group of lawmakers, rather than waiting for elections and a new legislature to be seated.