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The following work explores the figure of Nayib Bukele, the populist president that rules El Salvador since the 1st of June 2019. In the first place, it outlines his rise in the background of the crisis of the political regime that followed the signature of the Peace Accords of 1992. In the second, it follows his career from its beginnings within the FMLN until the launch of his candidacy for president in the guise of a populist leader confronted to the ruling political class. Finally, this work assesses the implications of the recent authoritarian drift of Bukele's government to the democratic future of El Salvador. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El Salvador's FMLN is an oft-cited example of a rebel movement which successfully embraced electoral democracy. This article examines the ideological dimensions of this transformation. In the course of the Salvadoran peace process, the FMLN substantially overhauled its ideological orientation and associated modes of engagement with the state and the broader political system. Moderation unfolded in four subsequent stages: the resignification of revolution as a process of reform, the FMLN's rebel-to-party adaptation, the electoral consolidation of the FMLN, and the FMLN as the party in government. Over the years, while electoral politics invited public moderation, Leninist dogma continued to dominate internal party politics. This article finds that the post-war FMLN has employed seemingly contradictory ideological repertoires in parallel. This ambivalence, strongly rooted in the war, has facilitated the FMLN's electoral ascendency. It has also strained democratic consolidation in El Salvador. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the role played by Schafick Jorge Handal in the process of political conversion of the Frente Farabundo Martí into la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) in the post-civil war period. We analyzed the main debates about the political and ideological redefinition of the FMLN, once the civil war was finished, the party leadership and internal democracy. This process was marked by bitter disputes between the leaders of the old political-military organizations that formed the FMLN. Handal was one of the main protagonists of these struggles, and gained power and internal recognition. But he died suddenly in 2006, when the process of "unification" was advanced, but not consolidated. Nevertheless, Handal has become the main identity reference in the official memory of the party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El Salvador is characterized by the sad record of having one of the highest degrees of violence and crime in Latin America. Recent governments have tried to fight it with programmes called 'mano dura' or 'super-mano dura' with measures and practices that have often violated human rights and judicial guarantees. This paper aims to explore the Supreme Court's role in the application of these policies by the Salvadoran government. We discovered that the highest court in this country supports this kind of policies termed by some analysts 'policies of punitive populism'. In this sense, the Constitutional Chamber acted in contrast to what is required by democratic theory. The paper proceeds as follows: in the first part we analyse the theoretical framework of public safety policies and frame the Salvadoran case. In the second part, we explore the Supreme Court cases that support (or not) these policies, examining the performance of the court in relation to these cases. The last part is a summary of our evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the historic presidential elections in El Salvador in 2009. Special attention is given to the evolution of the FMLN political party in the post-civil war era and its relationship with social movements in civil society. The combined forces of democratization and neoliberal policy implementation in the 1990s and early 2000s assisted in strengthening the alliance between the leftwing political party and popular movements. The FMLN was able to gradually channel the momentum of social movement campaigns against economic liberalization policies and public opinion into electoral gains at the local, parliamentary and executive levels of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last several decades, numerous civil wars have ended as a consequence of negotiated settlements. Following many of these settlements, rebel groups have made the transition to political party and competed in democratic elections. In this paper, I assess the legacy of civil war on the performance of rebel groups as political parties. I argue that the ability of rebels to capture and control territory and their use of violence against the civilian population are two key factors explaining the performance of rebels as political parties. I test these hypotheses against the case of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in El Salvador using one-way ANOVA and multivariate regression analyses. In analyzing the FMLN’s performance in the 1994 “elections of the century,” I find that, as a political party, the FMLN benefited both from the state’s violently disproportionate response and its ability to hold territory during the war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Salvadoran state, in issuing the anti-gang law of 2003, demonstrates little comprehension around the problematic of the adolescence and youth, using stigmatization and repression to avoid any type of personal or group identification that is not in line with what is established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During 2008, the country was focused on the second general elections during the post-civil war period. The presidency, seats in the legislature and the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), as well as the mayorships of all 262 municipalities were up for election. The pre-election atmosphere, the campaigns, and above all, the contest for the presidency marked the political discourse and behavior of all sectors of society. At the end of the year, El Salvador showed clear signs of a heightened political polarization that even the local effects of the international financial crisis could not dilute. The country was preparing to enter the home stretch in a race that could, for the first time in 20 years, result in a president from a different political party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After decades of authoritarianism and a twelve-year civil war ended by a negotiated peace agreement in 1992, El Salvador is a markedly different country. Despite important changes, however, public institutions have remained largely unresponsive, acute social exclusion persists and violent crime has soared. Rather than the possibly inevitable by-products of a post-conflict situation, these and other developments are the consequences of a regression from an incipient electoral democracy to electoral authoritarianism. The elite-controlled Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA) party had more to gain from the preservation of the status quo than from democratic changes and only accepted a politically inclusive system to restore the oligarchy's dominant position through electoral politics. Uncommitted to democratic consolidation, successive ARENA administrations maintained an institutional façade of democracy to reproduce authoritarian governance and defend elite interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2007 El Salvador celebrated the fifteen year anniversary of the signing of the peace accords. This event served to establish a positive scenario where agreements could be reached to solve problems such as crime and lack of security. However, political polarization did not allow for concrete agreements to be reached, and political forces, by concentrating on the 2009 elections, brought about a premature presidential race. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Estudios Centroamericanos is the property of Universidad Centroamericana Jose Simeon Canas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Estudios Centroamericanos is the property of Universidad Centroamericana Jose Simeon Canas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Estudios Centroamericanos is the property of Universidad Centroamericana Jose Simeon Canas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Estudios Centroamericanos is the property of Universidad Centroamericana Jose Simeon Canas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Estudios Centroamericanos is the property of Universidad Centroamericana Jose Simeon Canas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)