In June 2019, Nayib Bukele was inaugurated as the 81st president of El Salvador. He oversaw El Salvador's response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, and experimented with classifying Bitcoin as a national legal tender. Bukele passed a law in 2021 that made bitcoinlegal tender in El Salvador and promoted plans to build Bitcoin City. By 2025, El Salvador's bitcoin experiment had largely been unsuccessful.
Bukele weathered two political crises in 2020 and 2021 which ultimately strengthened his Nuevas Ideas party. In February 2020, Bukele ordered 40 soldiers into the Legislative Assembly building to intimidate lawmakers into approving a US$109million loan for the Territorial Control Plan. After Nuevas Ideas won a supermajority in the 2021 legislative election, Bukele's allies in the legislature voted to replace the attorney general and all five justices of the Supreme Court of Justice's Constitutional Chamber. Bukele has attacked journalists and news outlets on social media, drawing allegations of press censorship.
In July 2019, Bukele implemented the Territorial Control Plan to combat gang violence and reduce El Salvador's homicide rate, which at the time was 38 per 100,000 people. Homicides fell by 50 percent during Bukele's first year in office. Digital news outlet El Faro and the United States Department of State accused Bukele's government of secretly negotiating with gangs to reduce the homicide rate. After 87 people were killed by gangs over one weekend in March 2022, Bukele initiated a nationwide state of emergency and crackdown on gangs, resulting in the arrests of over 85,000 people with alleged gang affiliations by December 2024. El Salvador's homicide rate decreased to 1.9 homicides per 100,000 in 2024, one of the lowest in the Americas. The resulting crackdown on organized crime has generally been characterized as reducing gang activity and violence at the cost of widespread arbitrary arrests and human rights abuses.[1]:84
In June 2023, the Legislative Assembly approved Bukele's proposals to reduce the number of municipalities from 262 to 44 and the number of seats in the legislature from 84 to 60. He ran for re-election in the 2024 presidential election and won with 85 percent of the vote after the Supreme Court of Justice reinterpreted the constitution's ban on consecutive re-election. Bukele's government pursued further constitutional changes in 2025, allowing indefinite presidential re-election, extending the presidential term from five to six years, and eliminating runoff elections.
Bukele is highly popular in El Salvador, where he has held a job approval rating above 75% during his entire presidency and averages above 90% approval. He is also popular throughout Latin America. Critics say El Salvador has experienced democratic backsliding under Bukele, as he has dismantled democratic institutions, curtailed political and civil liberties, and attacked independent media and the political opposition.
During Bukele's presidential campaign, he promised to bring an end to gang violence in El Salvador;[2] El Salvador was considered one of the world's most dangerous countries due to its gang violence.[3] Most of El Salvador's violent crimes were committed by MS-13 and the 18th Street gang (Barrio 18). Although they are El Salvador's largest gangs, both originated in Los Angeles. MS-13 was formed in the 1980s by Salvadoran refugees fleeing El Salvador's civil war. The 18th Street gang was formed in the 1960s by Mexican immigrants. Much of the gang violence stemmed from income inequality, poverty, poor schools, a lack of job opportunities, and high urbanization.[4]:2–3
El Salvador's homicide rate peaked at 107 homicides per 100,000 people in 2015.[5] El Salvador's homicide rate had decreased to 38 homicides per 100,000 people by 2019, still one of the world's highest.[6][7] Gangs controlled parts of El Salvador,[8]:237 and ordered business owners to pay renta (extortion) for protection or face violence.[9] In early 2019, there were an estimated 67,000 gang members in El Salvador.[2]
First presidential term
First inauguration
Bukele at his first (top) and second inaugurations
Bukele's first presidential inauguration was held on 1 June 2019.[8]:244 He became the 81st president of El Salvador as well as the country's youngest president at the age of 37.[10] Bukele held the inauguration ceremony at the National Palace due to its location in Gerardo Barrios Plaza (renovated by Bukele as mayor of San Salvador) instead of in the Blue Room (meeting room) of the Legislative Assembly in an effort to portray himself as focusing his presidency on the people. Bukele's supporters booed and jeered at the Legislative Assembly deputies as they were introduced.[8]:244 He announced a sixteen-person cabinet composed of eight men and eight women.[11]
COVID-19 pandemic
Bukele issued an executive decree on 11 March 2020 imposing a "quarantine throughout the national territory" ("cuarentena en todo el territorio nacional"), shortly after World Health Organization (WHO) director-generalTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. The quarantine suspended all school activities for 21 days, prohibited foreigners from entering the country, and mandated a 30-day quarantine for everyone entering the country.[12] Bukele confirmed the first case of COVID-19 in El Salvador on 18 March 2020.[13] The country's first death from the disease was recorded on 31 March.[14] On 5 May 2023, the Pan American Health Organization declared the end of the pandemic.[15] According to the WHO, As of 27September2023[update], El Salvador had 201,807 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 4,230 deaths from the disease by 2 June 2023; the WHO reported that 11,426,688 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had been administered in El Salvador by that date.[16]
On 21 March 2020, Bukele imposed a 30-day nationwide lockdown in an effort to combat the pandemic. During the lockdown, 4,236 people were arrested by the National Civil Police for violating the lockdown order; 70 were arrested before the lockdown order became public. The arrestees were quarantined in a "containment center". Human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch criticized the arrests, citing instances of arbitrary arrests and abuse by police.[17] Amid April 2020 lockdowns in the country's prisons and published images of prisoners lined up in cramped positions, Human Rights Watch called the prisons' living conditions "inhumane" (particularly in light of the pandemic).[18]
On 27 May 2020, the United States donated 250 ventilators to El Salvador. During a press conference where Bukele received the ventilators, he said that he took hydroxychloroquine as prophylaxis and added that "most of the world's leaders use [hydroxychloroquine] as a prophylaxis".[19] Bukele inaugurated the Hospital El Salvador, the largest hospital in Latin America used exclusively for treating cases of COVID-19 at the site of the former International Center for Fairs and Conventions[es], on 22 June 2020. The hospital had a capacity of 400 beds, 105 intensive-care units, and 295 intermediate-care units staffed by 240 doctors.[20] In August 2020, the hospital's capacity was increased by 575 beds.[21] It began treating conditions other than COVID-19 by June 2022.[22] In April 2021, Bukele inaugurated a vaccination center at Hospital El Salvador to administer up to 10,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine per day;[23] the center closed in August 2022, as dose administrations diminished.[24]
Most of El Salvador's COVID-19 vaccines were donated by the United States and China.[25][26] On 13 May 2021, Bukele donated 34,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to seven towns in Honduras after pleas from their mayors for vaccine doses.[27] El Salvador had received 1.9 million doses at the time, and Honduras had only received 59,000.[28] Gabriel Labrador, a journalist for El Faro, told El País that Bukele made the donation to Honduras to improve his public image in Central America.[27]
The 2020 (top) and 2021 crises are known by the numeronyms "9F" and "1M", respectively.[29]:77
In November 2019, Bukele began trying to secure a $109 million loan from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration to fund phase three of the Territorial Control Plan.[30] The legislature, which was controlled by ARENA and the FMLN, asked him to give them more time to evaluate the loan.[31] On 6 February 2020, Bukele invoked Article 167 of the country's constitution and called for an emergency meeting of the Legislative Assembly to approve the loan. He called for his supporters to rally around the Legislative Assembly during the emergency meeting that was scheduled for 9 February.[32] Although Bukele ordered 40 soldiers into the Legislative Assembly's meeting room on the day of the meeting to coerce legislators into approving the loan,[33] a quorum was not reached and the loan was not approved.[34] Opposition politicians described the crisis as a "self-coup",[30][34] and it is known in El Salvador as "9F" or "ElBukelazo".[29]:84
In the 2021 legislative elections, Nuevas Ideas received a supermajority in the Legislative Assembly.[35] On 1 May 2021, Nuevas Ideas formed a coalition government with GANA, the National Coalition Party (PCN), and the Christian Democratic Party (PDC).[29]:89 That day, the coalition voted to remove the five justices of the Supreme Court of Justice's constitutional court and Attorney General Raúl Melara.[36] The justices were replaced by five of Bukele's allies, and Melara was replaced by Rodolfo Delgado.[37] The purge, known in El Salvador as "1M",[29]:89 was described by journalists and opposition politicians as a "self-coup" and a "power grab"[36][38][39] and was condemned by the United States.[39][40][41]
Bukele announced at the Bitcoin 2021 conference on 5 June 2021 that he would introduce a bill to the Legislative Assembly that would make bitcoinlegal tender, saying that it would "generate jobs" and promote "financial inclusion" in the short term.[42] The Legislative Assembly approved the bill three days later.[43] Although the World Bank rejected a request from the Salvadoran government to assist it with the implementation of bitcoin as legal tender, citing concerns about transparency and the environmental effects of bitcoin mining,[44] Athena Bitcoin announced that it would invest $1 million to install 1,500 bitcoin ATMs. This would allow users to exchange U.S. dollars for bitcoin and vice versa.[45]
Bitcoin became legal tender on 7 September 2021 in El Salvador,[46] the first country to do so.[47] It became legal tender alongside the United States dollar, which had been adopted in 2001 and replaced the Salvadoran colón.[46] About 1,000 people marched in the streets of San Salvador to protest the country's adoption of bitcoin.[48]
The day before bitcoin became legal tender, Bukele announced that the Salvadoran government had bought its first 200 bitcoins.[49] Economist Steve Hanke stated that El Salvador had "the most distressed sovereign debt in the world" due to its adoption of bitcoin,[50] and other economists predicted that the country would likely default on its debt.[51] As the price of bitcoin rose to $44,000 in December 2023, Bukele announced that El Salvador's investment into bitcoin had broken even.[52] In March 2024, he stated that El Salvador had made a 50-percent profit from bitcoin. Bukele mocked news-media outlets on Twitter, saying that there were "literally thousands of articles" about El Salvador's bitcoin losses and the same outlets were now "totally silent".[53] By 19 January 2025, the Salvadoran government had 6,043 bitcoins worth $611.2 million.[54]
In November 2021, Bukele announced that he planned to build Bitcoin City in the southeastern region of La Unión at the base of the Conchagua volcano. The city would use geothermal energy to power bitcoin mining.[55] Ricardo Navarro, head of the Salvadoran Center of Appropriate Technology, criticized the plan, adding that it would result in an "environmental disaster".[56] Bukele published images of models of Bitcoin City and its planned airport on Twitter in May 2022, saying that the city would have "no income tax, zero property tax, no procurement tax, zero city tax, and zero CO2 emissions".[57] In December 2023, the Legislative Assembly passed a law that allowed individuals to purchase Salvadoran citizenship by donating bitcoins to El Salvador.[58]
On 18 December 2024, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to give El Salvador a $1.4 billion loan in exchange for the Salvadoran government making some concessions from the Bitcoin Law. Concessions included not requiring businesses to accept bitcoin as payment, not accepting bitcoin as tax payments, and reducing the number of bitcoins the government was purchasing.[59] The day after the loan was approved, Stacy Herbert, the director of the National Bitcoin Office, stated that El Salvador would continue to buy bitcoins at an "accelerated rate" ("ritmo acelerado")[60] and the government purchased 11 bitcoins then worth over $1 million in total.[61] On 29 January 2025, the Salvadoran government amended the Bitcoin Law to remove bitcoin's status as legal tender and currency but still allows its use as payment.[62]
In March 2025, The Economist wrote that El Salvador's bitcoin experiment had been a failure, bringing more costs than benefits to the El Salvador economy.[63]
Anti-corruption campaigns and alleged governmental corruption
Bukele established the International Commission Against Impunity in El Salvador[es] (CICIES) in September 2019, an anti-corruption commission to combat drug trafficking, corruption, and white-collar crimes. CICIES was operated by the Salvadoran government and the Organization of American States (OAS), and cooperated with the National Civil Police to form an anti-corruption unit.[64] Bukele dissolved CICIES in June 2021 after the OAS named Ernesto Muyshondt an anti-corruption advisor;[65] Ernesto Muyshondt was accused by the Salvadoran government of electoral fraud and illegal negotiation with gang members to vote for ARENA during the 2014 presidential election. He was arrested[66] and was scheduled to go on trial in April 2024, despite concerns about his health.[67]
Twenty of Bukele's governmental institutions were investigated by the office of the attorney general in November 2020 for corruption related to the COVID-19 pandemic,[68] but the investigations were halted after the attorney general was removed by the Legislative Assembly on 1 May 2021.[69] The United States has placed sanctions on several of Bukele's government officials, labeling them as corrupt. The officials include Javier Argueta (presidential advisor), Osiris Luna Meza (general director of penal centers), Carlos Marroquín Chica (chairman of the Social Fabric Reconstruction Unit), Martha Carolina Recinos (chief of the cabinet), Rogelio Rivas (former minister of justice), Ernesto Sanabria (press secretary), and Alejandro Zelaya (former minister of finance).[70][71][72] The U.S. also considered some of Bukele's Legislative Assembly allies corrupt, including Guillermo Gallegos and Christian Guevara.[70][73] Some of the individuals are included on the U.S. State Department's "Engel List" of Central American politicians and judges considered "corrupt and undemocratic".[74] Bukele called the sanctions and labels "absurd".[71] In May 2021, the United States diverted El Salvador funding from government institutions to civil society groups to combat perceived corruption in Bukele's government.[75]
On 11 November 2021, Bukele introduced the "Foreign Agents Law" to the Legislative Assembly with the goal of "prohibiting foreign interference" in Salvadoran political affairs.[76] According to Minister of the Interior Juan Carlos Bidegain, the law was meant to "guarantee the security, national sovereignty and social and political stability of the country".[76] Although Bukele stated that the law was modeled on the United States' Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), critics have compared it to Nicaraguan laws that institute press censorship by shutting down organizations and arresting journalists.[76]Human Rights Watch reported on 16 December 2021 that 91 Twitter accounts belonging to journalists, lawyers, and activists were blocked by Bukele and governmental institutions.[77] In October 2024, when investigative journalists published a report that found that Bukele, his three brothers, wife, and mother had purchased 34 properties valued at US$9 million during Bukele's first presidential term, Bukele referred to the journalists as "imbeciles" and denied accusations of corruption.[78]
On 1 June 2023, during a speech celebrating his fourth year in office, Bukele stated that his government would begin a "war against corruption" ("guerra contra la corrupción").[79] He announced that he would build a prison for individuals convicted of white-collar crimes that would be similar to the Terrorism Confinement Center.[80] Bukele stated that the police and military would arrest white-collar criminals like they capture gang members in the gang crackdown.[79] He added that Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado was in the process of raiding and confiscating assets worth up to $68 million from former Salvadoran president Alfredo Cristiani as part of the anti-corruption campaign.[81] Others charged during Bukele's war on corruption include deputies Erick García,[82]Lorena Peña[83] and Alberto Romero,[84] and national security advisor Alejandro Muyshondt.[85]
In 2022, the last full year before the war against corruption was announced, Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index gave El Salvador a score of 33 out of 100 and ranked it 116th out of 180 countries.[86] According to a February 2023 CID-Gallup opinion poll, only four percent of Salvadorans considered corruption the country's most pressing issue.[87]
Municipal, legislative and judicial changes
Bukele holding a bill proposing the reduction of the number of municipalities from 262 to 44
In December 2022, Bukele tweeted that he believed that the country's 262 municipalities should be reduced to 50. He called it "absurd" ("absurdo") that El Salvador, around 8,100 square miles (21,000km2) in size, had so many municipalities.[88] Some lawyers and politicians criticized Bukele's proposed reduction as an attempt to consolidate power by gerrymandering.[89][90]:20 His allies supported the proposal, with some proposing a reduction in the number of Legislative Assembly seats.[91][92][93]
On 1 June 2023, during a speech commemorating his fourth year in office, Bukele announced that he would present two proposals to the Legislative Assembly. One sought to reduce the number of seats in the assembly from 84 to 60, and the other sought to reduce the number of municipalities from 262 to 44.[94] Bukele justified the legislative reduction by saying that the legislature had 60 seats before the signing of the Chapultepec Peace Accords in 1992 that ended the Salvadoran Civil War, and the accords' only accomplishment was the addition of 24 seats to the legislature.[95] About the municipal-reduction proposal, he stated that the 262 municipalities would retain their cultural identities and be classified as districts.[94] The Legislative Assembly approved the proposal for legislative reductions on 7 June 2023,[96] and approved the proposal for municipal reductions six days later.[97] Both reductions became effective on 1 May 2024.[98][99]
Bukele allies have fired top judges and packed El Salvador's courts with Bukele loyalists, allowing him to circumvent a constitutional term limit which would have prevented him from running for re-election.[100] In 2025, El Salvador's Legislative Assembly approved an extension of the presidential term length from five to six years and removed term limits on the presidency, allowing for indefinite re-election.[101]
Persecution of opposition and human rights groups
In June 2025, two high profile critics of Bukele were arrested by the government and held in prison pending their trials.[102][103] Ruth Leonora López, an anticorruption lawyer with the nongovernmental organization Cristosal, was jailed for six months on illegal enrichment charges. López denied the charges, shouting after her court hearing “I am a political prisoner, the accusations are for my legal work, for my reporting this administration’s corruption. There are not institutions that guarantee Salvadorans rights. I am innocent.” López and her lawyers were critical of the judicial process in her case, demanding a public trial. Ultimately, her trial was held behind closed doors and the case was sealed.[102]
Another prominent lawyer, Enrique Anaya, was arrested the same month and held for fourteen days without a hearing per the 2022 state of emergency. Anaya and his defense have maintained his innocence, calling the money laundering charges against him political in nature. His case is sealed, and information about the proceedings is not available to the public. Anaya was arrested a day after calling Bukele a dictator on TV. After his preliminary hearing, Anaya was ordered to remain in jail pending his trial. Anaya said that his incarceration has negatively impacted his health.[104]
On 19 June 2019, Bukele announced that his government would implement a seven-phase security Territorial Control Plan that sought to disrupt gang finances.[105] The plan began that night at midnight.[106] Phase one, known as "preparation", called for members of the country's security forces — the Armed Forces of El Salvador and the National Civil Police (PNC) — to be stationed in 12 of the country's 262 municipalities at locations where gangs were known to collect renta.[107] The government also implemented a temporary state of emergency in El Salvador's 28 prisons, putting them on lockdown and banning visitors.[108]
Bukele and members of his cabinet discussing phase two of the Territorial Control Plan, July 2019
Phase two of the plan, known as "opportunity", began in July 2019 and called for the creation of programs and initiatives to prevent youths predisposed to crime from engaging in criminal activity. The programs and initiatives included creating scholarships, building schools and sports centers, and improving healthcare. Bukele established the Social Fabric Revitalization Unit to implement the phase.[109] Phase three, known as "modernization", began in August 2019 and called for the improvement of equipment used by the country's security forces; it included issuing new weapons, gear, helicopters, and drones to the security forces.[110] Phase four, known as "incursion", began in July 2021 when the security forces began patrolling areas with a high gang presence that were considered difficult to access.[111]
Phase five, known as "extraction", began in November 2022. Security forces were ordered to "surround large cities and extract the terrorists [gang members] who [were] hiding within the communities, without giving them the slightest possibility of escape".[112] Phase six, known as "integration", began in September 2023, when Bukele established the National Integration Directory to combat poverty and unemployment.[113] Details about phase seven, that has not yet been implemented, are not publicly known.[114]
Alleged government and gang cooperation
Video surveillance footage in a prison, reportedly of Osiris Luna(left, 1) during negotiations with gangs in March 2020
In July 2020, the International Crisis Group (ICG) published an analysis saying that the reason for the decrease in homicides during Bukele's first year in office could have been "quiet, informal understandings" between the government and the gangs. The Salvadoran government denied the ICG's allegations, and the ICG stated that it had no evidence to support the claim.[116]
In September 2020, the Salvadoran digital newspaper El Faro accused Bukele's government of conducting secret negotiations with MS-13. According to the El Faro report, the government agreed to grant MS-13 more freedom in prison in exchange for a reduction in homicides it would commit and support for Nuevas Ideas during the 2021 legislative elections.[117] Bukele denied El Faro's allegations, posting photos on Twitter of gang members rounded up in cramped conditions from an April 2020 prison crackdown.[118]
On 8 December 2021, the United States Department of the Treasury accused Bukele's government of secretly negotiating with MS-13 and Barrio 18 to lower the country's homicide rate. The department stated that Bukele's government "provided financial incentives" to both gangs to ensure that they would reduce the country's homicide rate and support Nuevas Ideas in the election held earlier that year (similar to El Faro's allegations the year before)[119][120] and sanctioned Osiris Luna Meza (the general director of penal centers and vice-minister of justice) and Social Fabric Revitalization Unit chair Carlos Marroquín Chica for negotiating with the gangs.[115]
Bukele denied the department's accusations, saying that the United States sought "absolute submission" from El Salvador rather than cooperation.[120] The United States Department of Justice also accused Bukele's government of releasing gang leaders between 2019 and 2021 as a part of the negotiations, including Élmer "El Crook" Canales Rivera who was released in February 2021 despite having an active Interpol arrest warrant against him. Bukele has denied the department's accusations.[121][122]
In June 2025, ProPublica reported that U.S. extradition requests of MS-13 leaders considered potential witnesses had been blocked by Bukele's government. The outlet also reported that a U.S. multiagency law enforcement team, Joint Task Force Vulcan, had previously gathered evidence that United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funds to El Salvador had been laundered and used to pay key MS-13 leaders.[123]
From 25 to 27 March 2022, gangs in El Salvador committed 87 homicides;[124][125] 62 were committed on 26 March alone, the deadliest day in Salvadoran history since the end of the Salvadoran Civil War (1979–1992).[126]Florida International University research director José Miguel Cruz attributed the killings to a breakdown in a secret truce between the government and the gangs, a truce that Bukele denied making. Cruz believed that the killings were a message from the gangs to the government for more concessions as a part of the secret truce.[127]
Avatar of Nayib Bukele
Nayib Bukele
@nayibbukele
MESSAGE TO THE GANGS: We have 16,000 "homeboys" in our power. Aside from the 1,000 arrested these days. We seized everything they had, even their mattresses, we've rationed their food, and now they won't see the sun. STOP KILLING NOW or they will pay too.
On 27 March 2022, the Legislative Assembly declared a 30-day state of emergency, formally known as a "state of exception" ("régimen de excepción")[130] and sometimes known as the "war on gangs".[131] The state of emergency suspended constitutional rights that included freedom of assembly, freedom of association, the right to privacy in communication, the right to be informed of the reason for arrest, the right to remain silent, and the right to legal representation. The requirement for any arrested individual to see a judge within 72 hours of arrest was also suspended.[128] Security forces were given the authority to make arrests without warrants, including of minors as young as 12.[100] In July 2023, Bukele's government passed a law formalizing the judicial system's existing practice of mass trials by judge, allowing up to 900 people to be convicted in the same trial, without a jury.[132]
The military was mobilized in neighborhoods controlled by gangs in an effort to reassert government control,[126] and made large-scale arrests of suspected gang members across the country.[128] In some instances, Bukele ordered security forces to blockade certain municipalities to capture all gang members within them. By October 2024, blockades were implemented twice in Apopa,[133][134]Cabañas,[135] Comasagua,[136]Nuevo Concepción,[137]San Marcos,[138]southern Chalatenango,[139] and Soyapango.[140]
Bukele has threatened incarcerated gang members. At the beginning of the crackdown, he tweeted that the government had seized incarcerated gang members' belongings, removed their mattresses, and rationed their food.[127][128] Bukele also posted a video of prisoners sleeping on floors and complaining about a lack of food and sanitation.[141] He threatened to deprive them of food entirely in April 2022 if the gangs attempted to retaliate against the crackdown, citing rumors about revenge killings.[142]
After members of Barrio 18 killed three police officers in Santa Ana in June 2022, Bukele said at a press conference that the gangs were "going to pay dearly" for the "ambush" against the police.[143] The government began destroying gravestones belonging to deceased gang members in November 2022 to prevent them from becoming "shrines"[144] and Bukele compared the gravestone destructions to denazification in post-World War II Germany.[145] He warned Salvadoran parents to keep their children away from gangs, since they would lead to "prison or death".[141][146]
Shortly after the crackdown began, Bukele called for the construction of a new 20,000-inmate prison.[142] He announced the construction in July 2022 of the 40,000-inmate Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in Tecoluca, that would be one of the world's largest prisons.[147] In February 2023, Bukele posted a video on Twitter of him and members of his cabinet touring the prison. It is staffed by 250 police officers and 600 soldiers, and covers 410 acres (170ha).[148] Bukele posted a video on Twitter on 24 February 2023 of the transfer of the prison's first 2,000 prisoners,[149] and posted a similar video the following month of the transfer of 2,000 more prisoners.[150] By 11 June 2024, CECOT had at least 14,532 inmates.[151] Since the state of emergency, the incarceration rate in El Salvador has increased significantly, reaching 1 in every 57 people by 2024. El Salvador now has the highest incarceration rate in the world.[100] At least 427 people have died in Salvadoran prisons since Bukele's declaration of a state of emergency.[152]
Outcome of Bukele's crime policies
El Salvador's homicide rate has decreased every year of Bukele's presidency, a downward trend that began in 2016.[153] According to the Salvadoran government, the country's homicide rate was 38 per 100,000 people in 2019;[7] 19.7 per 100,000 in 2020;[154] 17.6 per 100,000 in 2021;[155] 7.8 per 100,000 in 2022;[156] 2.4 per 100,000 in 2023;[157] and 1.9 per 100,000 in 2024. Bukele has attributed the decline to his security policies.[158]
According to Celia Medrano[es], a human-rights lawyer and former general coordinator of the Commission for the Defense of Human Rights of Central America, it is "impossible" ("imposible") to verify the Salvadoran government's homicide figures because there is "no public access" ("no hay acceso público") to a daily homicide registry. Medrano stated that deaths in custody are not registered as homicides.[159] Bodies found in mass graves, missing persons, and people killed in police encounters are not included in the government's homicide statistics.[160][161] In July 2024, then former United States president Donald Trump falsely[162] accused Bukele's government of "exporting" criminals to the United States to lower El Salvador's crime rate.[163]
In June 2024, Bukele told Time that the security situation in El Salvador had become sustainable and that he and his government hoped to end the state of emergency "in the near future".[169] By 4 March 2025, the state of exception had been extended 36 times by the Legislative Assembly. By that same date, over 85,000 suspected gang members had been arrested,[170] 3,319 of whom were minors according to Human Rights Watch.[166] The large-scale arrests increased El Salvador's prison population from 37,190 in 2020 to over 105,000 by December 2023. With 1.7 percent of its population in prison, El Salvador has the highest incarceration rate in the world.[171][172] By November 2024, more than 8,000 people had been released after the government determined that they were innocent.[173] According to the human rights organizations, at least 367 people had died in custody by March 2025.[174] A number of opinion polls between May 2022 and June 2023 indicated that 80 to 90 percent of Salvadorans approved of the gang crackdown and measures taken by the government against the gangs.[175]
Bukele stated in June 2019 that his government would no longer recognize Nicolás Maduro as the president of Venezuela, instead recognizing Juan Guaidó as Venezuela's legitimate president during Venezuela's presidential crisis. On 3 November of that year, he expelled Maduro-appointed Venezuelan diplomats from El Salvador.[176] Bukele considers Maduro to be a dictator.[177] Bukele rejected the results of the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election as a "fraud" ("fraude") and stated that he would not restore relations with Venezuela unless there were "real elections" ("elecciones de verdad").[178]
Bukele refused to recognize the presidency of Manuel Merino in Peru in November 2020, calling Merino's government "putschist" ("golpista").[179] He and the Legislative Assembly denounced the results of the 2021 Nicaraguan general election, that were seen by several governments as fraudulent.[76] El Salvador has abstained from resolutions critical of Nicaragua at the Organization of American States since 2022, with Bukele's government citing "non-interference" ("no injerencia") as justification.[180] In 2024, El Salvador was the only country to abstain on an OAS resolution to condemn Ecuador for raiding the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas.[181]
In February 2022, Bukele accused United States president Joe Biden of "crying wolf" about a Russian invasion of Ukraine.[182] Bukele did not comment on the invasion when it began later that month, posting instead on Twitter about bitcoin and bonds.[183] Throughout 2022, El Salvador abstained from votes on United Nations resolutions condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[184] Bukele condemned the 7 October attacks, describing Hamas as "savage beasts" who "do not represent the Palestinians", comparing the group to MS-13. He tweeted that "the best thing that could happen to the Palestinian people is for Hamas to completely disappear".[185]
Bukele and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in February 2025
During Bukele's September 2019 meeting with Trump, Bukele called on Trump to promote legal migration in an effort to combat illegal immigration and to maintain the United States' temporary protected status (TPS) policy for Salvadorans living in the United States.[190] The following month, Bukele confirmed that the United States would continue TPS for Salvadorans.[191] In February 2021, Biden refused to meet Bukele when he arrived unannounced in Washington, D.C. to meet him.[192] Bukele did not attend the 9th Summit of the Americas in June 2022 due to frustration with the U.S. government's allegations of corruption and human rights abuses by his government.[193]
Some Democratic Party members have been critical of Bukele's government, and members of the Republican Party have supported him and his policies.[194] Bukele and Norma Torres, a member of the U.S. Congress representing California's 35th congressional district, engaged in an April 2021 argument on Twitter about illegal immigration at the United States' southern border.[195][196] Torres accused Bukele in November 2022 of interfering in that month's 35th congressional district election by endorsing Republican challenger Mike Cargile.[197] In January 2024, fourteen Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to Biden about Bukele's "authoritarian" actions.[198] Meanwhile, Republican congressmen such as Tom Cotton, Matt Gaetz, and Marco Rubio have praised Bukele's policies on crime.[199][200]
The second Trump administration considers Bukele to be an important ally in mitigating immigration to the U.S. from Central America.[201] In February 2025, Bukele offered Secretary of State Rubio to accept non-Salvadoran deportees from the United States, including convicted American prisoners "of U.S. citizenship and legal residents".[202] Rubio described the offer as the "most unprecedented and extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world".[203][204] Bukele stated that these "dangerous American criminals" would be incarcerated in CECOT.[202] In March 2025, the United States deported 238 alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to El Salvador.[205] Bukele met Trump in the Oval Office in April 2025 where they discussed immigration. Both Trump and Bukele stated they could not unilaterally release Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a migrant deported due to an administrative error.[206]
Bukele with Chinese ambassador Zhang Yanhui at the beginning of construction of the National Stadium of El Salvador in November 2023
In 2018, El Salvador cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan and recognized the People's Republic of China as China's legitimate government. This led to Bukele and the United States accusing China of interfering in Salvadoran and Latin American politics. Despite Bukele's criticism of China before becoming president, Vice President Félix Ulloa stated in May 2019 that Bukele's government would not restore diplomatic relations with Taiwan.[207] In December 2019, Bukele met Chinese president Xi Jinping in Beijing[208] and signed a "gigantic" infrastructure agreement with China for an unknown amount of money.[207] El Salvador and China have cooperated on infrastructure projects in El Salvador such as the National Library of El Salvador (completed in November 2023)[209] and the National Stadium of El Salvador (construction began in November 2023).[210]
In November 2022, Bukele announced that El Salvador and China had begun negotiations for a free trade agreement between the countries. China donated fertilizer and wheat flour to El Salvador and, according to a Salvadoran government official, offered to buy El Salvador's external bond debt. Bukele stated that a free trade agreement with China was "very important" because El Salvador had been "isolated from [the] potential" of China's economic strength.[211]
On 3 September 2021, the Supreme Court of Justice ruled that the president can serve two consecutive terms in office. The ruling overturned a 2014 ruling that presidents had to wait ten years to be eligible to run for re-election. Constitutional lawyers criticized the ruling, saying that consecutive re-election violates El Salvador's constitution.[212][213] The 2021 ruling allowed Bukele to run for re-election in the 2024 presidential election. ARENA and the FMLN protested the court's ruling, with an ARENA spokesperson calling it a "precursor to a dictatorship" and an FMLN representative saying that the state is serving only one person: Bukele.[213] The ruling was also condemned by the United States government. Jean Elizabeth Manes, chargé d'affaires of the United States to El Salvador, called it "clearly contrary to the Salvadoran constitution".[213] According to Manes, the ruling was a direct result of the May 2021 legislative replacement of the Supreme Court justices.[214]
On 15 September 2022, during a speech commemorating El Salvador's 201st anniversary of independence, Bukele announced that he would run for re-election in 2024. According to Bukele, "developed countries have re-election, and thanks to the new configuration of the democratic institution of our country, now El Salvador will too".[215][216][217] Constitutional lawyers criticized his announcement, saying that presidential re-election violates "at least" four articles of the El Salvador constitution.[218]
Bukele registering his 2024 presidential candidacy with the TSE
Bukele registered as a presidential pre-candidate on 26 June 2023 with Nuevas Ideas; Ulloa registered as Bukele's vice-presidential pre-candidate.[219] Nuevas Ideas nominated Bukele and Ulloa as their presidential and vice-presidential candidates on 9 July.[220][221] The party began registering Bukele and Ulloa's candidacies with the TSE on 26 October, the last day to do so.[222] On 3 November 2023, the TSE registered their candidacies[223] amidst opposition requests to reject Bukele's candidacy.[224]
On 30 November 2023, the Legislative Assembly granted Bukele and Ulloa leaves of absence to focus on their re-election campaign. The leave went into effect the following day and Bukele's presidential powers were suspended.[225] The Legislative Assembly named Claudia Rodríguez de Guevara, Bukele's presidential secretary, as the presidential designate; Rodríguez was the first woman in Salvadoran history to hold presidential power.[226] Her appointment was criticized by some lawyers and opposition politicians as unconstitutional.[227][228][229]
Including Bukele, there were six presidential candidates in the 2024 election.[230] His primary opponents were ARENA's Joel Sánchez, a businessman, and the FMLN's Manuel Flores, a former legislator.[231] Bukele led Sánchez and Flores by large margins in opinion polling before the election.[232][233] Bukele promised to maintain the gang crackdown, invest in infrastructure projects, and promote economic growth during his second term.[231] On 4 February 2024, he won re-election with 84.65 percent of the vote.[234] Bukele was the first Salvadoran president to be re-elected since Maximiliano Hernández Martínez in 1944.[235] Nuevas Ideas retained its Legislative Assembly supermajority and, with its allies, won 43 of the country's 44 municipalities.[236][237] Several news outlets described the election results as a "landslide victory" for Bukele and Nuevas Ideas,[238] and Bukele described his victory as "the record in the entire democratic history of the world".[239] The TSE granted Bukele his presidential credentials on 29 February[240] and his second term began on 1 June.[241]
Bukele's second presidential inauguration was held on 1 June 2024, again at the National Palace.[241] During the inauguration, the Armed Forces of El Salvador (FAES) staged a military parade as a show of force[242] and Bukele wore a Napoleonic-cut jacket with gold trim to evoke the image of Venezuelan liberator Simón Bolívar.[243] He described his second inauguration as "the most important moment in our recent history" ("el momento más importante de nuestra historia reciente").[242]
Second term economic plan
During Bukele's second inauguration, he stated that his second term would focus on improving the Salvadoran economy with "bitter medicine" ("medicina amarga").[244][245] In July 2024, Bukele threatened to mass-arrest vendors, importers, and distributors who engaged in price gouging.[244][246] Later that month, he announced the beginning of a six-phase Economic Plan ("Plan Económico"). Phase one, known as "Feeding" ("Alimentación"), involved the establishment of 30 food distribution centers and the removal of tariffs on certain agricultural imports for ten years.[244][247][248] Phase two, known as "Technology" ("Tecnología") involved the construction of data centers and technological parks in El Salvador. Bukele claimed that his Economic Plan would create 4,000 jobs.[244] Phase three, known as "Logistics" ("Logística"), involved the investment of US$1.6 billion into modernizing the ports of Acajutla and La Unión and the Turkish company Yılport Holdings operating the ports for 50 years.[249]
On 15 September 2024, Bukele stated that his 2025 government budget would not include "a single cent of debt for current spending" ("solo centavo de deuda para gasto corriente") and that his government would not take out foreign loans to pay for the budget.[250] On 16 October, El Salvador and J.P. Morgan & Co. agreed to restructure US$1.03 billion of the country's debt as a part of a debt-for-nature swap, which Bukele described as "reaffirm[ing] this government's commitment to economic growth".[251] In the agreement, El Salvador would allocate US$352 million in savings towards conserving the environment around the Lempa River.[252] On three occasions in 2024, Bukele offered to buy back billions of dollars worth of government bonds due by 2034.[253]
In November 2024, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration announced that it would give the Salvadoran government $646 million to finance infrastructure projects. Bukele stated that the bank's support would help El Salvador's "economic takeoff" ("despegue económico").[254] Later that month, Bukele wrote on X that he supported mining gold, describing it as "wealth that could transform El Salvador". He further described the country's metal mining ban as "absurd".[255] The Catholic Church, which supported the mining ban's implementation in 2017, called on Bukele to not repeal the ban citing environmental concerns.[256] The Legislative Assembly repealed the ban on 23 December 2024[257] and Bukele approved the law that same day.[258] In 2025, at least 2,500 street vendors were evicted from downtown San Salvador as part of Bukele's economic revitalization plan.[259]
↑ Fernández, Benjamin (June 2023). "'Sin Cadáver No Hay Crimen'"[Without a Body, There Is No Crime]. Mondiplo (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 4 February 2024. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
