A Central American dictator? El Salvador just ENABLED gang-busting, crypto-loving president Bukele to potentially ‘rule for life’

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele can potentially rule perpetually, as the central American country's legislature has just approved constitutional reforms that scrapped presidential term limits. The term length will increase from five to six years and the next election is moved forward to 2027, reports said on Friday (Aug 1). The changes will also shorten Bukele’s current term by two years, so that the presidential, legislative, and municipal elections cuold be held together in 2027. The move is being slammed by critics as establishing one-party rule.

How Bukele is cementing his rule in El Salvador

The El Salvador Congress passed the reform with Bukele’s 57 allies backing it, while only three opposition members voted against the move. "Thank you for making history, fellow deputies," said Ernesto Castro, president of the Legislative Assembly from Bukele’s New Ideas party, after the vote. Bukele, the 44-year-old leader known for gangster crackdowns and love for cryptocurrency, has already won a second term last year despite constitutional prohibitions. In 2021, El Salvador’s top court, which is stacked with Bukele-backed judges, ruled that it was his “human right to run again.”

Who is Nayib Bukele, the social media-savvy, crypto-loving populist president of El Salvador?

First elected in 2019, Nayib Bukele is very popular in central America, having broken into El Salvador politics away from traditional parties. The social-media savvy Bukele became famous globally first for making cryptocurrency adoption the official policy in September 2021. Under him, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. Bukele invested public funds into the cryptocurrency and envisioned a Bitcoin City, that would be powered by geothermal energy from volcanoes. Bukele argued that the move would promote financial inclusion, increase the efficiency of remittances and boost private investments. His move attracted digial nomads and crypto investors for some time to El Salvador. The IMF and financial analysts warned of fiscal risk and volatility, which were proven in later years as Bitcoin prices plummeted to record lows before recovering. The massive fluctuations in Bitcoin value led Bukele to amend the law in subsequent years.

Bukele is known for tough crackdown on gangs and crime in El Salvador

Bukele's signature initiative has been a massive crackdown on gang violence. He declared a state of emergency, which has been extended repeatedly since 2022, to fight crime. At least 75,000 people have been arrested, often without formal charges, under Bukele's anti-crime policies.

The crackdown led to a decline in homicide rates, but rights groups have raised alarm over violations of due process, and mass detentions. Last December, Amnesty International slammed the alleged “gradual replacement of gang violence with state violence.”

There have been allegations of abuse in overcrowded prisons of El Salvador. In order to address this, Bukele in 2022 inaugurated a 40,000-capacity Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum security prison in Tecolucar.

Bukele's 'perpetual rule' move criticised

Critics have accused Bukele and his supporters of trampling on democracy, with opposition MP Marcela Villatoro saying, “Today, democracy has died in El Salvador.” "The day before vacation, without debate, without informing the public, in a single legislative vote, they changed the political system to allow the president to perpetuate himself in power indefinitely and we continue to follow the well-travelled path of autocrats," said Noah Bullock, executive director of human rights group Cristosal.

Despite international criticism, Bukele enjoys high approval ratings in El Salvador, where many citizens see him as restoring order and national pride.