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El Salvador

Monthly Event Reports

February 2024 | Nayib Bukele is reelected as El Salvador’s president
Election flag

On 4 February Nayib Bukele was re-elected as president. Preliminary results, based on 70.25 per cent of polling stations, indicate that Bukele garnered more than ten times the number of votes won by the second-place candidate. Exit polls and Bukele’s own team predict his victory, with above 80 per cent of all votes. The Tribunal Supremo Electoral announced a recount of 30 per cent of presidential ballots and all legislative votes, due to significant glitches in its results reporting software and website. Official participation figures are not yet available. Bukele ran for a second term thanks to a 2021 Supreme Court decision that bypassed a constitutional prohibition on consecutive re-election. Pending completion of legislative vote tallying, Bukele has asserted that his party, Nuevas Ideas, will obtain almost total control of the National Assembly (58 out of 60 congress members). Polls also predict overwhelming support for Nuevas Ideas. OAS observers highlighted that elections took place in peaceful conditions, although in the context of a nearly two year old “state of exception” that was said to have impacted free speech and competition. Also noted were technological, logistical and training shortcomings which contributed to a significant delay in the transmission of results. Compared to the last legislative elections, the number of women candidates increased from 36 to 39 per cent.

August 2023 | Entire administrative region of Cabañas is sieged by the military

President Nayib Bukele’s government has imposed a military siege on the department of Cabañas, one of El Salvador’s 14 administrative regions. According to Bukele’s statements on social media, the objective of the operation, which involves 7,000 military and 1,000 police officers, is to prevent gang members from fleeing and to cut their supply lines. Even though the government has carried out similar operations in towns and cities since it first declared a state of emergency in March 2022, it is the first time this kind of operation is implemented in an entire administrative region, which has a population of around 150,000 people.  

July 2023 | Organized Crime Law reform and decree harshen prosecution of organized crime

The Legislative Assembly approved reforms to the Organized Crime Law that will increase sentences for gang leaders and will temporarily enable mass trials of up to 900 defendants as part of the structure of a criminal enterprise, instead of being processed individually. Mass hearings and arraignments had already taken place and been criticised by UN and human rights experts as infringing due process rights, including presumption of innocence. El Salvador now has the world’s highest incarceration rate, and mass incarceration during the country’s state of emergency has led to a significant backlog in cases, which is how the government justifies the measure. To this day, nearly 72,000 people have been detained, accused of collaborating or participating in gangs. 

May 2023 | CSO report details widespread use of torture in strategy against gangs

Local CSO Cristosal issued a report this month on the first year of El Salvador’s state of emergency to address violence from gangs. The report details the widespread use of torture against persons deprived of their liberty and documents the deaths of 153 people in custody, all of whom were held in pretrial detention. Numerous cases of suspicious deaths from immersive asphyxiation and strangulation are also detailed. The report documents physical evidence and interviews with detainees, and echoes previous criticism leveled by international non-governmental organizations such as Human Rights Watch against president Bukele’s strategy to counter gang violence.

Explore past monthly event reports

GSoD Indices Data 2013-2022

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Basic Information

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Population Tooltip
6 518 500
System of government
Presidential system
Head of government
President Nayib Bukele (since 2019)
Head of government party
Nuevas Ideas
Electoral system for lower or single chamber
List Proportional Representation
Women in lower or single chamber
27.4%
Women in upper chamber
Not applicable
Last legislative election
2021
Effective number of political parties Tooltip
3.03
Head of state
President Nayib Bukele
Selection process for head of state
Direct election (two-round majority)
Latest Universal Periodic Review (UPR) date
04/11/2019
Latest Universal Periodic Review (UPR) percentage of recommendations supported
73.43%
Population Tooltip
6 518 500
System of government
Presidential system
Head of government
President Nayib Bukele (since 2019)
Head of government party
Nuevas Ideas
Electoral system for lower or single chamber
List Proportional Representation
Women in lower or single chamber
27.4%
Women in upper chamber
Not applicable
Last legislative election
2021
Effective number of political parties Tooltip
3.03
Head of state
President Nayib Bukele
Selection process for head of state
Direct election (two-round majority)
Latest Universal Periodic Review (UPR) date
04/11/2019
Latest Universal Periodic Review (UPR) percentage of recommendations supported
73.43%
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Human Rights Treaties

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State Party State party
Signatory Signatory
No Action No action
United Nations Human Right Treaties
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
State Party
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
State Party
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
State Party
Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
State Party
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment
State Party
Convention on the Rights of the Child
State Party
International Convention on Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
State Party
International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance 
No Action
International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
State Party
International Labour Organisation Treaties
Forced Labour Convention
State Party
Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention
State Party
Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention
State Party
Equal Remuneration Convention
State Party
Abolition of Forced Labour Convention
State Party
Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention
State Party
Convention concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment
State Party
Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention
State Party
Regional Treaties
American Convention on Human Rights
State Party
Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
State Party
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Performance by category over the last 6 months

Representation neutral Representation
Sep 2023
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb 2024
Representation neutral Rights
Sep 2023
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb 2024
Representation neutral Rule of law
Sep 2023
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb 2024
Representation neutral Participation
Sep 2023
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb 2024

Global State of Democracy Indices

Hover over the trend lines to see the exact data points across the years

Explore the indices
Representation
Representation
0
/1
high 0.7-1.0
mid 0.4-0.7
low 0.0-0.4
Rights
Rights
0
/1
high 0.7-1.0
mid 0.4-0.7
low 0.0-0.4
Rule of Law
Rule of Law
0
/1
high 0.7-1.0
mid 0.4-0.7
low 0.0-0.4
Participation
Participation
0
/1
high 0.7-1.0
mid 0.4-0.7
low 0.0-0.4
Annual value

Factors of Democratic Performance Over Time

Use the slider below to see how democratic performance has changed over time

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