Latin America Erupts: Millennial Authoritarianism in El Salvador

In May 2021, Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele used his legislative supermajority to fire the country's highest court and top prosecutor. The power grab deepened El Salvador's democratic crisis by dealing a major blow to horizontal accountability. What explains Bukele's rise and the concomitant decline of democratic institutions in El Salvador? Bukele's success relies on millennial authoritarianism: an innovative political strategy combining traditional populist appeals and classic authoritarian behavior with a youthful and modern personal brand built on social media. His emergence has also been facilitated by two broader factors that challenge the conventional wisdom about democracy and democratic backsliding: the hidden long-term costs of democratic pacts and the unintended consequences of fighting corruption.