SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador's Legislative Assembly pushed through a constitutional reform overnight eliminating presidential term limits, fueling concerns on Friday that it paves the way for President Nayib Bukele to indefinitely stay in power.
Watchdogs and critics of the self-described “world's coolest dictator” said they've seen this coming for years, watching Bukele's administration slowly chip away at democratic institutions, attack opponents and consolidate power in the president's hands.
Bukele, who regularly posts streams of tongue-in-cheek remarks on social media, remained notably silent Friday. His government didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.
“It's not surprising. But that doesn't mean it's not severe," said Claudia Ortiz, one of the country's few remaining opposition lawmakers. “The implication of this is more concentration of power, more risk of abuse of the rights of Salvadorans ... and the complete dismantling of all democratic checks and balances.”
On Thursday night, Bukele's New Ideas party and its allies approved changes to El Salvador's constitution, which were jammed through Congress by the party’s supermajority.
The changes will:
The vote passed with 57 in favor and three opposed.
Damian Merlo, a U.S. lobbyist and consultant hired by Bukele's administration, defended the changes, noting that many European countries don't have term limits, and said the move only gives Bukele the option of reelection, not an automatic extension of his mandate.
"It’s up to the people to decide who the leader will be," Merlo said. “It’s been made very clear by the electorate they are very happy with the president and his political party — and this move represents the will of the people of El Salvador.”
Ortiz, the opposition congresswoman, called the defense “absurd,” and said that Merlo was citing countries — Germany and France — with democratic systems of government answering to the countries' parliaments. In El Salvador, power is now entirely concentrated in the hands of Bukele, she said.
Bukele, 44, was first elected president in 2019 after founding the New Ideas party, casting aside the country's traditional parties thoroughly discredited by corruption and lack of results. Bukele's highly controlled messaging of beating back the country's gangs and rooting out corruption have gained traction in El Salvador, especially as homicide rates have sharply dropped.
But critics say many of the moves he has justified as tackling corruption and violence have actually whittled away at the country's democracy.
Over the years, his attacks on opponents and critics have gradually escalated. In recent months, things have come to a head as Bukele has grown emboldened by his new alliance with U.S. President Donald Trump. A number of high profile arrests and a slew of other actions have forced more than 100 members of civil society — lawyers, activists and journalists — to flee their country as political exiles in the span of months.
This year, watchdogs have warned that Bukele has ramped up his crackdown on dissent, emboldened by his new alliance with Trump.
The recent constitutional reform has fueled a new wave of criticism by civil society in the Central American nation, with leaders saying that Bukele's government has finally done away with one of its last democratic norms.
Roxana Cardona, a lawyer and spokeswoman for the Movement of Social Justice and Citizen Control, said “a democratic state has been transformed into an autocracy.” Cardona was among those to provide legal representation for Venezuelans detained in El Salvador and other Salvadoran youth accused of being gang members.
“Today, democracy has died. A technocracy has been born. Today, we live in a dictatorship,” she said.
Others, like human rights lawyer Jayme Magaña, said the idea of alternating power, crucial in a country that still has decades of civil war and dictatorships of the past simmering in its recent memory, has been broken. Magaña said she worried for the future.
“The more changes are made to the system of government, the more we see the state’s repression of the Salvadoran population intensifying,” she said.
Janetsky reported from Mexico City.
FILE - Nayib Bukele, presidential candidate for the Gran Alianza por la Unidad Nacional, GANA, left, holds a campaign rally with his wife Gabriela Rodriguez in San Salvador, El Salvador, Jan. 26, 2019, ahead of the Feb. 3 vote. (AP Photo Salvador Melendez, File)
FILE - El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele gives a press conference in San Salvador, El Salvador, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, File)
Iran's top judge hinted at fast trials and executions for those who were detained in nationwide protests against the country's theocracy, even as activists said Wednesday that the death toll rose to levels unseen in decades with at least 2,572 people killed so far.
Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei made the comments about trials and executions in a video Tuesday, despite a warning from U.S. President Donald Trump that he would “take very strong action” if executions take place.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said the number of dead climbed to at least 2,571 early Wednesday. The figure dwarfs the death toll from any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos surrounding the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
After Trump was informed on the number of deaths, he warned Iran's leaders that he was terminating any negotiations and would “act accordingly.”
Details of the crackdown began emerging Tuesday as Iranians made phone calls abroad for the first time in days after authorities severed communications countrywide when the protests broke out.
Here is the latest:
Major Middle East governments were discouraging the Trump administration from waging a war with Iran, fearing “unprecedented consequences” in the volatile region, an Arab Gulf diplomat said Wednesday.
The Cairo-based diplomat said major governments in the region including Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabai and Pakistan have been “in constant contact” with the U.S. administration over a potential American strike on Iran that could explode into a “full-blown war.”
Such a war will “certainly” have dire repercussions “not only on the Middle East but also on the global economy," he said.
Iran and its proxies, the Houthis and the Iraqi militias, could strike back, targeting “not only American assets, but also oil facilities and maritime routes," he said.
Iranian state television said Wednesday’s mass funeral in Tehran would include 300 bodies of security force members and civilians. The funeral is expected to take place at Tehran University under heavy security.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency, which is tracking the death toll, said more than 2,550 people have been killed, 2,403 protesters and 147 government-affiliated.
Twelve children were killed, along with nine civilians it said were not taking part in protests. More than 18,100 people have been detained, the group said.
Gauging the demonstrations and the death toll from abroad has grown more difficult and The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll given the communications being disrupted in the country.
Melanie Lidman contributed from Jerusalem.
Trump’s decision to impose a 25% tariff on countries that trade with Iran could impact India, an expert said, as New Delhi already faces existing 50% U.S. trade levies due its purchases of Russian oil.
Abhijit Mukhopadhyay, a senior economist at the Chintan Research Foundation in New Delhi, said the bigger risk is not India-Iran trade, but India’s access to the U.S. market as its exports to Iran are modest.
India mainly exports rice, tea, sugar, pharmaceuticals and electrical machinery to Iran, while importing dry fruits and chemical products. Textiles and garments, gems and jewelry and engineering goods are likely to be the most vulnerable sectors, he said.
Trump’s latest move also could affect India’s investments in Iran including the strategically important Chabahar port, which gives India a trade route to Afghanistan, Central Asia and Europe while bypassing Pakistan, Mukhopadhyay said.
Iran’s judiciary chief signals fast trials and executions for those detained in nationwide protests.
Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei made the comment in a video shared by Iranian state television on Wednesday.
He emphasized the need for swift action, saying delays would lessen the impact.
His remarks challenge Trump, who warned Iran about executions in an interview aired Tuesday.
Trump stated the U.S. would take strong action if Iran proceeded with executions. The situation highlights escalating tensions between the two countries over the handling of the protests.
Dozens of Pakistani students studying in Iran have returned home through a remote southwestern border crossing, a Pakistani immigration official said Wednesday.
Federal Investigation Agency spokesperson in Quetta city, Samina Raisani, said about 60 students crossed into Pakistan on Tuesday through Gabd border in Balochistan province with valid travel documents.
More students were expected to return through the same crossing later Wednesday, she said.
Mudassir Tipu, Pakistan’s ambassador to Iran, said Tuesday that Iranian universities had rescheduled exams and permitted international students to leave the country.
The satellite internet provider Starlink now offers free service in to people Iran who have access to the company's receivers, activists said Wednesday.
Mehdi Yahyanejad, a Los Angeles-based activist who helped get the units into Iran, told The Associated Press that the free service had started. Other activists also confirmed in messages online that the service was free.
Starlink has been the only way for Iranians to communicate with the outside world since authorities shut down the internet Thursday night as nationwide protests swelled and they began a bloody crackdown against demonstrators.
Starlink did not immediately acknowledge the decision.
This frame grab from videos taken between Jan. 9 and Jan. 11, 2026, and circulating on social media purportedly shows images from a morgue with dozens of bodies and mourners after crackdown on the outskirts of Iran's capital, in Kahrizak, Tehran Province. (UGC via AP)
