El Salvador is the country in Latin America and the Caribbean facing the “fastest deterioration” of democracy in recent years, according to a report released Friday by an intergovernmental organization.
“El Salvador has experienced the fastest deterioration in democratic indicators over the last decade in the region,” said Marcela Ríos, regional director of International IDEA.
Since 2022, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has governed under a state of emergency designed — according to the government — to combat gangs. The measure, which allows arrests without a court order, has been criticized by human rights organizations.
On July 31, El Salvador’s Congress — controlled by Bukele — approved indefinite reelection to allow the president to remain in power. Bukele enjoys high popularity for his anti-gang “war.”
“El Salvador is a case of concern because it shows that even electoral democracies that function regularly and stably can experience very rapid and systematic deterioration,” added Ríos, former Minister of Justice of Chile, after presenting the regional chapter of a global report Thursday in Panama.
The regional report analyzes 27 countries on indicators such as press freedom, political participation, rule of law, and social equality. In El Salvador, there has been “a sharp decline in freedoms” and “a deterioration” of the rule of law and judicial independence, Ríos said.
In addition, “tricks” have been used — as in other countries — “to consolidate authoritarian regimes through indefinite reelections.” “The Bukele model has not been without devastating costs. El Salvador currently has the highest incarceration rate in the world,” the report notes, with 85,000 prisoners in a country of six million inhabitants, including thousands of minors.
It also ranks among the “most serious” cases of loss of judicial independence, alongside Afghanistan, Chad, Myanmar, and Tunisia. “Torture, forced disappearances, deaths in custody, and police abuse and intimidation are also common,” the report adds.
IDEA highlights that, in the past five years, the region has experienced democratic setbacks due to unreliable elections, lack of separation of powers, and human rights violations.
Nicaragua and Venezuela “have long been authoritarian regimes,” and in Haiti “almost none of the basic requirements of a democratic system are present” due to the “generalized collapse of institutions,” Ríos said.
“Brazil, in Latin America and globally — along with Colombia — are two of the countries that have seen the greatest improvements in democratic matters,” she added.
