El Salvador is facing democratic erosion due to its current president Nayib Bukele. Bukele at first started his presidency in 2019, winning against the two candidates of the main two historically dominant parties. Claiming that he was going to help fix El Salvador’s gang issues and corruption, but that wasn’t the case.

A sign of democratic erosion in El Salvador made by Bukele was delegitimizing the opposition and raising accusations against them. He is doing everything in his power to get those who oppose him and the government to be held accountable. In Democratic Erosion Consortium we see an example of this, “By targeting political opposition, Bukele has removed judges, bureaucrats, and opposition candidates, all in the name of solving corruption.” Here we see that Buruklee was getting rid of the opposition but in a sneaky way by him saying it is because they were corrupt. In the article Stealth Authoritarianism by Ozan Varol it says,  “Rather than imprisoning political opponents without due process, they prosecute them for violations of the existing criminal laws” This is what we see Bukele do, he is trying to get his opponents to be charged of violating criminal laws like corruption or fraud.

Another example of Bukele showing signs of democratic backsliding is that he was using the military unconstitutionally. Bukele arrived at the Legislative Assembly with armed soldiers, asking for funds to strengthen his military. In an article by the New York Times it said, “On Monday, El Salvador’s Supreme Court suspended any acts resulting from the emergency session and ordered Mr. Bukele to refrain from using the military in ways that are unconstitutional and “endanger the republican, democratic and representative system of government.” Bukele was using the military to get what he wanted and using it against Congress. In the article it said,“He announced that he would give Congress a week to approve the loan. In a speech to his supporters outside, he said he would remove lawmakers from the legislature if he needed to.” This shows that Bukele was going against the constitution and using the military to threaten others to get what he wanted. According to How Democracies Die by Ziblatt and Levitsky they created four behavioral warning signs, “ 1) rejects, in words or action, the democratic rules of the game, 2) denies the legitimacy of opponent, 3) tolerates or encourages violence or 4) indicates willingness to curtail the civil liberties of opponents, including the media.” Bukele violates a few of these like denies legitimacy of the opponent and the indicating willingness to curtail the civil liberties of opponents. This is bad for democracy because in a democracy one must acknowledge their opponent and not restrict citizens from certain rights.

Bukele shows a lot of signs of democratic erosion and based on these few examples we can see El Salvador showing more democratic backsliding. Especially since Bukele has been president since 2019 and has been pushing this agenda since.

Varol, Ozan. 2015. “Stealth Authoritarianism.” Iowa Law Review 100(4): pp. 1673-1742. Parts I, II and III.

Levitsky, Steven & Daniel Ziblatt. 2018. How Democracies Die.New York: Crown. Chapter 1.

The Editorial Board. “El Salvador’s President Sends a Terrifying Message to the World.” The New York Times, February 14, 2020.

Author Last Name, First Name [or Democratic Erosion Consortium]. “El Salvador’s Successful Stealth Authoritarianism.” Democratic Erosion. November 17, 2025.