The State of Exception in Latin America.
Comparative Constitutional Law; Populism; Abusive Constitutionalism; El Salvador; Bukele
The present work aims to analyze the phenomenon of bukelism, which consists in a political style created by the current President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele, and is being responsible for dismantling the Democratic Rule of Law in the country. Hence, I first present some basic concepts involving populism, abusive constitutionalism, and abusive populist constitutional interpretation. Once these issues are clarified, I start to analyze the abusive constitutional populism in El Salvador. Therefore, I explain how President Bukele used the techniques of court-packing and indetermined prorogation of State of Exception to undermine democracy, and is legitimizing his autocratic acts through an effective but immediatist policy of combat against gangs in a nation that is traumatized by them.