Bukele maintains his enormous popularity despite his image as a ‘dictator’

About to begin his seventh year in power—the second beyond the limits established in El Salvador’s Constitution—Nayib Bukele remains an enormously popular president, despite having consolidated an international image as a “dictator.” It is a label that doesn’t bother him in the least, he said in his address to the nation on Sunday. On Monday, one of the most reliable opinion polls in the Central American country gave him an approval rating of 8.5 out of 10.

According to the poll released by LPG Datos, the polling firm of La Prensa Gráfica, Bukele ended his sixth year in power with the approval of 85.2% of the population, his main achievement being the dismantling of criminal gangs and the historic reduction of the homicide rate.

Since coming to power in 2019, Bukele has maintained an approval rating above 80%. This is unique in Latin American politics, which is accustomed to leaders’ popularity declining over time. The same study shows, however, that, compared to 2023, his approval rating has slightly decreased by six points, dropping from 91% to 85%. The study does not show data for 2024.

Another poll published in late May by CID Gallup, a firm that conducts polls in Central America, the Caribbean and South America, also gave him an 85% approval rating. This survey also showed that Salvadorans’ perception of whether the country is headed in the right direction fell 14 points, from 87% to 73%.

The LPG Datos survey published this Monday also shows a slight increase in the population that disapproves of the president. In 2023, that percentage was 6.9%, while for 2025 it is 10.8%. Respondents cited the economy, the rising cost of living, and deficiencies in public health as the main problems. Only 1.4% of the population considered the concentration of power in a single individual to be a problem.

Since coming to power in 2019, Bukele has embarked on a race to concentrate all power in a single figure: himself. Over the course of six years, he has crushed the traditional party system, secured an absolute majority in the Legislative Assembly thanks to his enormous popularity, and used it from day one to irregularly replace all the Supreme Court justices and replace the Attorney General. He later carried out a judicial purge to appoint judges to his liking, and more recently, he took over the electoral tribunal.

Of his six years as president, three have been spent under his most powerful weapon to date: the state of emergency, a measure contemplated in the constitution for temporary and extraordinary emergencies, the application of which has been justified as a means of combating gangs. This measure, which was supposed to last for just one month, has now been renewed 39 times.

Over the past year, Bukele has used the tool designed to combat gangs for political gain to pursue, capture, and prosecute activists and human rights defenders. The latest attack occurred last May, after the Military Police repressed a peasant demonstration in front of the president’s house and detained two of its leaders, José Ángel Pérez and Alejandro Henríquez. Both were charged with disturbing the peace and resisting arrest. Although both are low-level offenses, the Prosecutor’s Office has applied the same time limits on the charges as established under the state of emergency.

In his speech broadcast this Sunday on the occasion of his sixth year in power, Bukele criticized human rights organizations and journalists. “To the international media, you know what? I don’t care if they call me a dictator. It’s better than having Salvadorans killed in the streets,” he said.

He also took the opportunity to attack human rights organizations and justify his most recent “Foreign Agents Law,” which will allow the president to decide which human rights organizations get to work in the country and which do not, in addition to imposing a 30% tax on those he deems to have political influence. This measure is similar to the one imposed in Daniel Ortega’s Nicaragua in 2021.

A Sunday publication in the online newspaper El Faro has reported on the existence of political prisoners in El Salvador for the first time since the civil war. The report states that by March 2025, there were 28 political prisoners in El Salvador while 92 more were being persecuted for their political beliefs.

Currently, political options in El Salvador are almost nonexistent given Bukele’s predominance. The few individuals who have dared to challenge him are either in prison or have left the country. It remains to be seen whether a figure will emerge in the coming years who can compete with him. For now, there isn’t one.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition