According to 2023 Latinobarómetro data, 63% of Salvadorans affirm: “I wouldn’t mind if an undemocratic government came to power if it solved the problems”. What happened on February 4 in El Salvador with the re-election of President Nayib Bukele confirms the previous data. The young president won the elections with 85% of the vote.
Doubts have spread in the international community about the emergence of an autocracy in El Salvador. Complaints about this from various non-governmental organizations alleged legal violations
People keep coming up. The president’s attack on the media has become commonplace and a quasi-messianic speech from the presidential pulpit is already part of Bukele’s style.
In this context, it is worrying that the majority of his fellow citizens do not appreciate the trend of the former, under the pretext that the Salvadoran president has practically put an end to crime
Mission to place yourself above the institutions. There is no experiment in Latin America and its contemporary history in which a president with these characteristics remains in power by these means
democratic and without traces of corruption over time.
In 2002, Latinobarómetro recorded that 44% of Latin Americans said: “I wouldn’t mind if a non-democratic government came to power if it solved the problems.” In 2023, the idea will be the same
10 points increased. El Salvador exceeds the average (63%). In this sense, Bukele could introduce a new pseudo-democratic model in Latin Americawhere the results can be seen and the
Popularity is breaking records, but with a weakened democratic apparatus, no rule of law; Finally something is threatening. In the long run, few good things can be predicted.
*Managing partner and founder of Thinko Consulting
amotta@thinkokonsulting.com