Trump’s favorite Latin American ally could be around for a long time

El Salvador’s National Assembly made sweeping changes to the country’s constitution, paving the way for President Nayib Bukele to serve indefinitely.

Salvadoran legislators voted Thursday to scrap presidential term limits and extend a president’s term in office from five years to six years, according to a social media post from the National Assembly. The move could allow Bukele — who is currently serving his second term in office and has positioned himself as a top ally to President Donald Trump — to remain in office for years to come.

A total of 57 lawmakers voted in favor of the changes to the country’s constitution, with only three lawmakers voting in opposition, according to the National Assembly. Bukele’s New Ideas party holds a supermajority in the legislature, holding 54 of the body’s 60 seats.

“Historic day for our country!” New Ideas legislator Ana Figueroa, who sponsored the proposals, said in a social media post. “The people have the full power to freely choose their leaders.”

Figueroa argued that mayors and federal lawmakers are capable of seeking re-election as many times as they wish, saying after that vote that “we have aligned the presidential election with the format of the other popularly elected positions.”

Lawmakers also eliminated the second round of a presidential election where the two top vote-getters face each other in a run-off, essentially streamlining the process, according to the National Assembly.

First elected to the presidency in 2019, Bukele rocketed to stardom among the Salvadoran population for cracking down on organized crime, locking away MS-13 gangbangers and dramatically lowering the country’s homicide rate. He was re-elected in 2024 in a landslide and his approval ratings remain sky high among Salvadoran voters, reaching an 85% approval rating as recently as June.

Since Trump returned to the White House in January, Bukele quickly positioned himself as one of the Republican president’s greatest allies in Latin America. After opening the Terrorism Confinement Terrorism, more popularly known as CECOT, Bukele offered the mega-prison as a destination for the Trump administration’s most heinous deportees.

“President Bukele agreed to take back all Salvadoran MS-13 gang members who are in the United States unlawfully,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a public statement at the time. “He also promised to accept and incarcerate violent illegal immigrants, including members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, but also criminal illegal migrants from any country.”

The Trump administration took Bukele up on this offer, deporting a slate of illegal migrants — originally from El Salvador and elsewhere around the world — to the mega-prison before judicial roadblocks sprang up. Bukele also initially resisted calls from Democrats and activists to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran illegal migrant charged with orchestrating a rampant migrant smuggling operation in the U.S., when he was sent to CECOT.

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