An Elite‐Driven Transition to Authoritarianism: El Salvador Under Nayib Bukele

ABSTRACT For the last 6 years, El Salvador has undergone a transition towards an authoritarian regime. One of the key factors in this process is the rise to power of a new faction of the political elite led by Nayib Bukele and linked by close kinship and business relations. This new elite has broken the consensual unity around the rules of the political playing field laid down in 1992, launching a legitimization strategy based on the resignification of the Peace Accords, punitive populism, reconfiguration of the political role of the military, and authoritarian capitalism as an economic policy model.