Item Link: Access the Resource
Date of Publication: May 13
Year of Publication: 2020
Publication City: Washington, DC
Publisher: The Wilson Center
Since taking office in June 2019, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has clashed frequently with the country’s legislature and Supreme Court over issues of executive authority. While Bukele remains highly popular, critics charge that he is weakening El Salvador’s fragile democracy by concentrating power, deploying the military and police to uphold his rule, and defying institutional checks and balances. To confront the coronavirus, he has imposed a harsh lockdown, unleashing the security forces to arrest thousands accused of quarantine violations, in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling declaring such detentions unconstitutional.
Elsewhere in Central America, Nicaragua’s authoritarian government has refused to implement social distancing or other stay-at-home measures. President Daniel Ortega has called the pandemic a “sign from God” and the government has allowed and even encouraged sports events, festivals, and other mass gatherings to occur. By ignoring medical and scientific advice and admitting only a handful of cases, critics charge that the government is inviting an outbreak of disease that would overwhelm the country’s health system, along with Nicaragua’s neighbors, especially Costa Rica, where tens of thousands of Nicaraguans have fled.
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