Latin America | Bukele gags the opposition in El Salvador

Hardline policies remain popular in El Salvador. Authoritarian President Nayib Bukele celebrates his sixth anniversary in office on June 1st and has long enjoyed an approval rating of around 80 percent. Since the last parliamentary elections in February 2024, the self-proclaimed "coolest dictator in the world" has been able to rely on 57 of the 60 parliamentary seats with his Nuevas Ideas (New Ideas) party and allied parties, aided by a revised electoral law passed by parliament, where Bukele had already enjoyed a qualified majority since 2021. However, Bukele has been losing approval for some time now; recently , only 55 percent approved of his leadership . This is one of the reasons why, with a clear parliamentary majority behind him, he is continuing down the path to a de facto dictatorship.

On May 20, lawmakers overwhelmingly passed the law regulating foreign agents. From now on, Bukele can decide, by order of the mufti, which non-governmental organizations or independent media outlets are allowed to operate in the country. And for those who are allowed to operate pro forma, it will be more difficult: In addition to being registered in a national registry, they will now have to pay 30 percent of their income to the state – this particularly targets donations from abroad, whether from political foundations or partner organizations.

Military police in action against civilians

Bukele himself announced the law last week after a small protest in front of his residence. He had the military police break up the demonstration. It was the first time since the 1992 peace agreement that the military police were deployed against demonstrators, a power normally reserved exclusively for the National Civil Police.

On Tuesday, Interior Minister Juan Carlos Bidegain Hananía presented the law. The debate lasted a mere 84 minutes. Since May 2024, only three opposition MPs have been in parliament: two from the right-wing Arena party and the left-wing MP Claudia Ortiz from the Vamos (We Go) party. She criticized the measure. "This law is incompatible with democracy, the rule of law, and respect for the fundamental rights to freedom of expression and assembly," she said. "It is an authoritarian tool for censoring and weakening the civic space in El Salvador," she added.

The passage of the law came amid the most intense offensive against voices critical of Bukele. In the past three weeks alone, at least 15 people – including entrepreneurs, community leaders, and activists – have been arrested for political reasons without the right to defense. The most recent arrest was Ruth López, a prominent human rights lawyer and member of the non-governmental organization Cristosal, who was arrested on Monday. As head of Cristosal's anti-corruption and justice unit, she had conducted several investigations into Nayib Bukele's government, which has been in office since 2019, and was named one of the BBC's 100 most influential and inspiring women in the world in 2024. Now, according to a post on the social network X, the Attorney General's Office is accusing her of alleged "embezzlement" or misappropriation of state funds before she began working at Cristosal. This is a fabricated accusation intended to silence an important voice of civil society.

El Salvador's law goes beyond Nicaragua's

Earlier this month, at least seven journalists fled for fear of arrest after publishing information about alleged secret government collusion with the gangs. Two gang leaders from the Mara, "Barrio 18 Revolucionarios," had previously reported extensively in the online newspaper "El Faro" about the long-standing collusion with the Bukele government. The statements confirmed "El Faro"'s research into a pact between the government and the gangs. It was the first time that gang leaders, masked and involved in negotiations with government officials in maximum-security prisons, reported on camera about the collusion that enabled Bukele to seize power in the country.

The law now passed in El Salvador goes even further than the 2020 Foreign Agents Regulation Law in Nicaragua, with which the government of Daniel Ortega banned more than 5,200 non-governmental organizations and revoked the legal personality of various universities and independent media outlets. In El Salvador, it is estimated that the law could affect up to 8,000 non-governmental organizations and more than a dozen independent media outlets. The law now passed in El Salvador is almost identical to the 2020 Foreign Agents Regulation Law in Nicaragua, with which the government of Daniel Ortega banned more than 5,200 non-governmental organizations, as well as various universities and independent media outlets. In El Salvador, it is estimated that the law could affect up to 8,000 non-governmental organizations and more than a dozen independent media outlets.

El Salvador's parliament has now approved the 38th extension of the state of emergency without any changes. It was first imposed on March 27, 2022, after 87 people were murdered in a single weekend. Since then, Bukele has, by his own admission, declared war on the street gangs (Maras), with whom he reportedly made pacts—although he denies this—since his time as mayor of San Salvador from 2015 to 2018 in order to reduce the murder rate and increase his popularity. The emergency rule suspends various constitutional rights, such as the right of prisoners to criminal defense, the inviolability of telecommunications, and the extension of administrative detention from a maximum of three to 15 days.

396 people who had been detained since the state of emergency was declared have died in custody, the organization Socorro Jurídico Humanitario (SJH, Humanitarian Legal Aid) announced in May. They were among the approximately 86,000 prisoners in El Salvador's prisons for being members or suspected collaborators of gangs. According to SJH, 94 percent of the 396 prisoners had no clear gang affiliation and died without being brought before a judge after their arrest. And with the gag law against the opposition, the path to a dictatorship is now clearer than ever.