It is probably safe to say that President of the United States is one of the most high-profile jobs available. Children as early as kindergarten aspire to the Oval Office, and there is perhaps no other job that receives nearly the same amount of media attention and public scrutiny. Therefore, it is probably important to know whether or not the president is, in fact, good at his job. While this method is certainly flawed, one of the ways this is done in this country is with the Gallup Poll, which has been used as a metric of presidential approval since 1937. Generally speaking, the presidential approval rating decreases over the course of a term of office, but usually remains near or above 50%. Contrary to this pattern, though, Joe Biden’s approval rating sits at the time of writing at 38%. In addition, Donald Trump made history as the first president since the implementation of the poll to never have an approval rating above 50%. Apparently, there has been very little confidence in the president for a while in this country. One country whose leader is in stark contrast to the American pattern though, is El Salvador.
El Salvador held their general election on February 4, 2024. The election was a clean sweep for incumbent Nayib Bukele, who garnered 84.7% of the vote. For comparison, the highest percentage of the popular vote won by a US President was 61.1%, achieved by Lyndon B Johnson in 1964. In addition, Bukele’s political party, New Ideas, won 54 of the 60 congressional seats, resulting in a massive supermajority. The self-described “world’s coolest dictator” ran on a populist platform, touting achievements in his first term, most notably his sharp crackdown on gang violence, which has resulted in more than 1% of the population being incarcerated. This crackdown has been criticized for a lack of due process and inhumane detainment conditions. The human rights organization Amnesty International has condemned Bukele’s actions, saying that they have resulted in (among other things) “more than 66,000 detentions… ill treatment and torture, flagrant violations of due process… and the deaths in state custody of at least 132 people.” However, Bukele’s actions have resulted in a 70% drop in the national homicide rate since 2015. Ultimately, it comes down to a philosophical question about false negatives or false positives: is it better to be more careful when arresting criminals so as to not arrest innocent people, or to arrest broad categories of people so as to ensure all criminals are kept off the streets? And, El Salvador is certainly not the only country grappling with this question: as of 2021, the United States had a prison population of 1,767,200, and while El Salvador does have the world’s highest per capita prison population, the United States is sixth on that list. But in addition to raising questions of ethics and human rights violations, Bukele’s presidency has challenged the very ideal of democracy.
Bukele’s very campaign was in conflict with the Salvadoran constitution, which prohibits the reelection of presidents. However, a purge of the courts during his term allowed for a ruling permitting Bukele to run again. This purge was made possible by the February 2021 election, which gave New Ideas a hefty majority in congress, though not nearly as large as the current majority. Critics of Bukele’s administration point out that such actions undermine the principles of checks and balances that help keep democracies stable. And, of course, Bukele has referred to himself as a “dictator,” which seems bleak for the future of Salvadoran democracy. And yet again, this is not unique to El Salvador, as indicated by Donald Trump’s infamous statement on authoritarianism. But beyond the parallels between El Salvador and the United States, Nayib Bukele is actively having an impact on the American political landscape.
On Thursday, February 22, in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington DC, Bukele lifted up El Salvador as a cautionary tale for the United States, and said that “dark forces are already taking over your country.” In a speech charged with nationalism, Bukele utilized the frequently quoted story of a frog boiling in a pot to invoke fear in his audience. When he stated that in order to achieve order, it is necessary to remove “corrupt judges and prosecutors,” an audience member shouted “and Nancy Pelosi,” prompting laughter from the audience. Bukele bragged about his supermajority in Congress, and claimed that this was due to “free and fair elections,” though during his term, Bukele’s administration restructured Congress to give his party a clear advantage. He claimed that “the global elites… weaponize the judicial system to persecute political opponents,” which appears to be a reference to Donald Trump’s ongoing legal battles, and said that within our judicial system, “it seems that survival and control of the judges… are paramount,” despite the fact that Bukele’s party purged the courts to allow for reelection. Bukele closed his speech by claiming that “winning the election isn’t enough to stop these problems… It would take a total reengineering of the government top to bottom.” But he left this reengineering idea open. If this reengineering follows Project 2025, a manifesto created by the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation that involves gutting most federal agencies and placing an unprecedented amount of power in the hands of the president, it would entail highly controversial, undemocratic changes to the government, made without the consent of the people.
In conclusion, Nayib Bukele has won by a landslide for a second term as the Salvadoran president. His approval rating is sky-high, and he was democratically elected. However, outside entities have criticized and condemned the Bukele presidency as undemocratic and authoritarian. Their criticisms include questions about human rights, democracy, and power dynamics in government, questions that all societies grapple with. In our modern, highly contentious political scene, it is more important than ever that we keep engaging in open discourse around democratic ideals.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.