El Salvador has a new institutionality

Abstract

From 1992 to May 2019, El Salvador was governed for twenty years by the right-wing ARENA party and ten years by the left-wing FMLN party. Both parties and traditional ideologies “governed” the country alongside the Mara Salvatrucha 13 and Barrio 18 gangs, dividing the country between them. The formal government controlled 20 percent of the territory and the gangs controlled 80 percent. In addition, more than five million citizens were held hostage, meaning that organized crime controlled 90 percent of the territory and population, which means that both leaderships of the traditional parties were part of the criminal structures. When Nayib Bukele took office on June 1, 2019, he declared war on terrorist organizations and organized crime, and it was won without bloodshed, making El Salvador one of the 10 safest countries in the world. Bukele also carried out reforms and structural changes focused on creating the economic, political, and social conditions to provide Salvadoran citizens with well-being in a democratic context that respects human rights.