Narrative thread · 1 event
Bukele's third term
Where things stand
Bukele has now formally registered to run again in El Salvador, after the constitution was opened up to allow it. El País says the country's promise of alternation in power is disappearing as he moves toward a third term.
Nayib Bukele has governed El Salvador since 2019 and has already secured a second term, despite constitutional limits that were long read as barring consecutive re-election. Those limits are now being rewritten, and Bukele has formalised his candidacy for a third term. According to El País, the changes are being made to suit him, so that the principle of alternation in office is effectively vanishing. The dispute is therefore less about any single election than about whether an incumbent can keep redefining the rules that bound his own tenure.
Timeline in detail
Thursday, 30 July 2026 · GeopoliticsBukele files for third term as El Salvador scraps term limits
Nayib Bukele has formalised his candidacy for a third term as president of El Salvador while the constitution is being rewritten to suit him, El País reports. According to the paper, the promise of alternation in office is thereby disappearing.