Nayib Bukele has been unconstitutionally re-elected as President of El Salvador. His government can rely on a hegemonic party system that presents a façade of democracy but denies opposition parties any real power. The elections followed an unparalleled subversion of democratic institutions and processes, carried out to consolidate the Central American leader’s electoral autocracy. Bukele claims popular legitimacy, but he has used his rule to eliminate checks and balances, manipulate the independence of the judiciary and the state administration, and stifle press freedom. Behind his grip on authority lies a desire to achieve political and economic influence for the Bukele family and an aspiring business elite associated with it. The President has built his popularity as a political leader through the spectacularization of a state of emergency. Ostensibly a crackdown on gangs, the measure is being used to arbitrarily detain citizens and repress critical voices. Bukele manages El Salvador’s security crisis not to reduce violence, but to bolster support for his regime.