A couple years prior El Salvador had implemented a “state of exception” which suspended several civil liberties and constitutional rights to combat the high criminal activity throughout the country. As of now, it has proven to be highly effective as numbers of homicides and gang violence have dropped significantly since March of 2022. However, despite these drops in crime rates it’s been highly debated for the legality of the situation due to the length of the declaration as it has been extended multiple times which is still in play to this day.  The continuation of the policy poses a plausible threat to democracy due to the continuation and number of civil liberties taken from citizens of El Salvador. Although state of exception reduced gang violence, it represents authoritarianism that weakens checks and balances and normalizes suspension of civil liberties.

How the crime crackdown happened and what led to it

Prior to Bukele presidency, El Salvador was facing political rivalry between parties that had been powerful post the Civil War era in El Salvador. A lot of gang violence was prevalent, and there was no ease with the satiation at hand, and the nation’s citizens were constantly under duress. These problems would lead to the problem of corruption with the countries and their leaders, and they had lost a lot of trust from their citizens and democracy was eroding.  Berman (2021) fits this build up as this research describes the reasoning for populist emerging Bukele being one of them. Bukele describes the old parties as relics of the civil war era and delegitimizes critics as defenders of the criminals in El Salvador which is like what is said by Berman on page 72 mentioning” A Manichean, us vs them worldview or people versus liberal elites”. So, his popularity fits the structure to populist rhetoric which was seen after his initial help to El Salvador.

Bukele arrival

Bukele brought a lot of justice to the amount of crime from all the promises he made to the citizens of El Salvado. He implemented a state of emergency which gave the law enforcers much more authority to arrest members of gangs without the requirement of warrants. This is all back in 2019.  This appeared to be a turnaround for El Salvador however a lot more controversial moves by the president gave signs for another flip in the state of democracy back in 2021 his removal of constitutional court and attorney general spared outrage and the suppression of press, which aligns with more populist authoritarianism

Now more recently it seems that democracy is continuing to erode under the rule of Bukele especially since the State of Exception place March of 2022. Supposed to be a short period of time now spanning for 4 years and still counting. The reason why this is a threat to democracy is because citizens have lost their civil rights. There is essentially no right or privacy for any individual. Many people have been arrested for being suspected of people being affiliated with gangs and sometimes they aren’t at all. With 33,000 of those individuals being falsely arrested. Despite the situation improving, Bukele insists on continuing despite the task being completed. This situation can be linked with Varol (2015) with the whole concept of stealth authoritarianism. He has not abolished elections or declared dictatorships, but he has used emergency powers to essentially have centralized authority.  Which describes the metamorphosis mentioned by (Varol pg. 1723). This is what modern-day Authoritarianism looks like.

What does Bukele state of exception reveal about democracy?

Bukele state of exception shows how democracy erode slowly without the need of a military or something drastic to make a democracy fall. Democratic erosion happens unknowingly, which is represented by the amount of support given to him during his 2019 election the public loved him. However, this was warned by Berman and Varol. Since populist rises when trust in their parties die as he was the voice of the people m for them. While Varol describes how he uses emergency to give more power to the government and how it was easily made “permanent” meaning being extended without repercussions.  The right for people is easily able to be taken away after corrupt government and failed democracy and because of this democracy begins eroding more than what it initially started as.