El Salvador Under Nayib Bukele (2019-2024): State Centralization, Anti-Gang Policies, and Democratic Backsliding

Abstract

This essay offers a reconstruction of the rise of Nayib Bukele and his group in El Salvador, tracing their trajectory from the local government of Nuevo Cuscatlán to control of the executive branch and, ultimately, of much of the country’s state apparatus. It aims to discuss how this rise became possible and to examine the main features of Bukele’s first term in office (2019–2024). It argues that Bukele
did not emerge suddenly or unexpectedly, but rather at the intersection of a distinct trajectory of political accumulation and the crisis of the main postwar parties: ARENA and FMLN. Building on this reconstruction, the text analyzes three closely interrelated dimensions of Bukele’s government: state centralization, anti-gang policy, and democratic backsliding. The essay concludes that Bukele’s first administration expresses a reconfiguration of postwar state power, marked by institutional concentration, punitive effectiveness, and democratic weakening.