El Salvador’s legislature approved constitutional amendments removing term limits, potentially allowing its President Nayib Bukele to rule for life.
The strongman leader has won plaudits at home, and many fans abroad, for a hardline crackdown on gang violence that has largely tackled sky-high murder rates in the Central American nation. But the effort — involving mass incarceration, including at a notorious megaprison — has been criticized by rights groups for rounding up huge numbers of innocent people as well.
Along with scrapping term limits, Bukele’s party, which dominates the legislature, also extended the duration of presidential terms and delayed the next election. The change, El País said, was “long-expected but momentous,” and “consolidates an increasingly autocratic model of power.”