Trump administration backs Bukele’s indefinite reelection: ‘We reject comparisons with dictatorial regimes’

Amid the storm of national and international criticism sparked by the Salvadoran parliament’s decision to approve indefinite reelection — which will allow Nayib Bukele to remain in power — the Donald Trump administration has delivered a resounding endorsement to its closest political ally in Central America: “The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador was democratically elected to advance the interests and policies of its constituents. The decision to make constitutional changes is theirs. It is up to them to determine how their country should be governed,” stated a State Department spokesperson.

On July 31, the popular Salvadoran president fulfilled his loftiest political ambition, taking advantage of his legislative majority to break the constitutional barriers that prohibit indefinite reelection, the most common evil that has led dozens of Latin American countries to dictatorships.

The constitutional changes clear the way for Bukele to seek a third term; they extend the presidential term to six years (up from five) and eliminate the runoff round in the voting process. For Salvadoran civil society organizations and international human rights defenders, the reform approved by the Bukele-led Assembly raises alarm bells about what they see as the latest step in an increasingly authoritarian regime.

“They are following Venezuela’s path. It begins with a leader who uses his popularity to concentrate power, and ends in a dictatorship,” warned Juanita Goebertus, director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch (HRW), on her X account. For his part, HRW deputy director for the Americas, Juan Pappier, recalled that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights “has been clear about the risks to democracy posed by indefinite presidential reelection.” That court warned, in a June 2021 advisory opinion, “that the greatest current danger for the region’s democracies is not an abrupt breakdown of the constitutional order, but a gradual erosion of democratic safeguards that can lead to an authoritarian regime, even if it is elected through popular elections.”

However, the Trump administration, which became a staunch ally of Bukele after the latter offered his Cecot mega-prison to house deportees from the United States, has decided to support reform in El Salvador, a country that has seen around 40 journalists and human rights defenders go into exile in recent months and already holds several political prisoners, including lawyer Ruth López.

“We reject the comparison of El Salvador’s legislative process — democratic and constitutionally sound — with illegitimate dictatorial regimes elsewhere in our region,” the State Department spokesperson insisted. This represents a complete reversal from the previous administration, that of Joe Biden, which consistently challenged Bukele’s burgeoning authoritarianism and sanctioned several of his officials, including Director General of Penitentiary Centers and Deputy Minister of Justice and Public Security Osiris Luna Meza.

Specifically, through the Penal Centers portfolio, Bukele made his Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot) available to Washington to house deported migrants, including Venezuelans accused without evidence of belonging to the Tren de Aragua criminal organization.

Last week, Pappier told EL PAÍS that the reason Bukele was able to carry out the constitutional reform allowing indefinite reelection at this point is because he knows that with Trump in the White House, he has a “free rein.” “Today, he feels he has no international barriers to prevent him from taking the country down the path of Nicaragua. He knows that Trump couldn’t care less about democracy and the separation of powers; that what matters to him is having governments like El Salvador’s that do his work for him, and [Bukele] is happy to do Trump’s homework at the expense of his authoritarian project.”

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