El Salvador's Bukele justifies unlimited re-election: ‘Democracy isn't dying'

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3 days ago

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has defended a sweeping constitutional reform that removes presidential term limits, dismissing criticism of authoritarianism. The reform, passed by a Bukele-controlled Congress, also extends presidential terms from five to six years. read more
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele defended a constitutional revision that allows him to seek unlimited re-election on Sunday, criticising critics who claim it signals the Central American country's rising authoritarianism.
'Ninety percent of developed countries allow the indefinite reelection of their head of government, and no one bats an eye. But when a small, poor country like El Salvador tries to do the same, suddenly it's the end of democracy,' Bukele wrote in English on X.
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The change was approved Thursday by El Salvador's Congress, which is controlled by Bukele's New Ideas party.
Additionally, it increases the length of presidential terms from five to six years.
Having been president since 2019 and re-elected in 2024 with 85% of the vote, 44-year-old Bukele now controls almost all of the nation's institutions, a situation the opposition refers to as a 'dictatorship.'
His uncompromising stance against criminal gangs has garnered him a lot of sympathy at home, but his strategy has drawn harsh criticism from both domestic and international rights organisations.
Bukele has prominently backed US President Donald Trump's deportation drive by accepting hundreds of expelled Venezuelan migrants held in the infamous CECOT prison under dubious legal grounds.
The constitutional reforms came after a wave of arrests targeting human rights defenders and government critics, prompting dozens of journalists and humanitarian workers to flee the country.
One of the few opposition lawmakers in the unicameral legislature, Marcela Villatoro, criticized the reforms on Thursday, saying: 'today, democracy has died in El Salvador.'
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Bukele argued that the changes brought El Salvador into line with parliamentary systems where the prime minister can hold office indefinitely.
Critics will 'rush to point out that 'a parliamentary system isn't the same as a presidential one,' as if that technicality justifies the double standard,' he wrote in his post.
'But let's be honest, that's just a pretext. Because if El Salvador declared itself a parliamentary monarchy with the exact same rules as the UK, Spain, or Denmark, they still wouldn't support it,' he added, claiming critics would 'go ballistic if that happened'.
With its reform, El Salvador joins Nicaragua and Venezuela as Latin American nations without presidential term limits.