Overview

• El Salvador’s Nuevas Ideas–controlled legislature approved a constitutional amendment that abolishes presidential term limits and extends each term from five to six years.
• The U.S. State Department issued a statement defending the sovereign right of El Salvador’s democratically elected assembly to enact the changes and rejecting comparisons to illegitimate regimes.
• Opposition lawmaker Marcela Villatoro and Archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas criticized the overhaul as illegitimate and lacking public consultation.
• More than 100 human rights activists, journalists and lawyers have fled the country in recent months, citing fear of arrest under President Bukele’s intensified crackdown on dissent.
• President Nayib Bukele maintains approval ratings above 90 percent, bolstered by his security strategy against gangs that has driven homicide rates to historic lows.