By Alejandra Garcia on August 3, 2025
Nayib Bukele
El Salvador has crossed a critical line this week. Last Thursday, Congress approved a controversial constitutional reform that opens the door to indefinite presidential reelection with no term limits—a change that undermines the democratic principles established in the 1983 Constitution.
The reform was passed in record time: less than six hours were enough to alter fundamental pillars of the Salvadoran political system. The timing was not coincidental. The vote took place just one day before the festivities of San Salvador began, when much of the population was already distracted.
With 57 votes in favor out of 60 seats in Congress—most held by members of the ruling New Ideas party—the reform not only allows indefinite reelection, but also extends the presidential term from five to six years and eliminates the second electoral round, further weakening democratic safeguards.
Pro-government congresswoman Ana Figueroa defended the measure, stating that it aims to “give total power to the Salvadoran people” and to align presidential elections with the rules that apply to other popularly elected positions. However, according to constitutional analysts, human rights defenders, and international organizations, the reform represents a dangerous concentration of power in the president.
President Nayib Bukele, 44, was first elected in 2019 and reelected in 2024, despite the Salvadoran Constitution explicitly prohibiting presidential reelection. Now, with this new amendment, the path is clear for him to remain in power indefinitely.
International Alarm and Internal Repression
Human rights organizations have called the decision a “mortal blow” to democracy and a “constitutional manipulation” that serves Bukele’s authoritarian ambitions.
Noah Bullock, director of the organization Cristosal, warned that “the day before the vacations, without debate, without informing the citizenry, in a single legislative vote, they changed the political system to allow the president to perpetuate himself in power”.
Cristosal, like other groups critical of the government, has faced intense persecution. Several of its members have been forced into exile and have sought asylum abroad. The approval of the reform follows a wave of arrests targeting human rights defenders and journalists, carried out under a state of emergency that Bukele has used as a tool of repression.
In a context where the state restricts civil liberties and eliminates institutional checks and balances, this reform represents an authoritarian turn that threatens the stability and legitimacy of El Salvador’s political system. It also allows Bukele to continue and expand his torture prison business, unencumbered, with the Trump administration that is illegally dumping immigrants there with documents or not.
This new bill makes the presidency a short step to a dictatorship.
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English