Democracy in Latin America has lost support in the last decade and, instead, support for authoritarianism is growing, revealed the latest Latinobarómetro survey. El Salvador is the Latin American country where the greatest satisfaction with democracy is recorded. RFI interviewed political scientist Daniel Grimaldi, one of the study’s authors.
“Democracy, far from being consolidated, has entered a recession” in Latin America, warned sociologist Marta Lagos, director of the Latinobarómetro corporation, when presenting the results of the survey carried out among 19,205 people in 17 countries in the region. The study shows that only 48% of Latin Americans today support democracy as a political regime, which marks a decrease of 15 percentage points from 63% in 2010.
At the same time, support for authoritarianism has increased. 17% of Latin Americans supported the expression “an authoritarian government may be preferable” compared to 15% who did so 13 years ago. “Latin America is a vulnerable region that is open to populism and undemocratic regimes, with a clear decline in democracies,” the report alerts.
El Salvador: satisfaction with democracy doubles the regional average
According to the survey, El Salvador is the Latin American country with the highest level of satisfaction with democracy, with 64%, more than double the regional average of 28%. They are followed by Uruguay (59%) and Costa Rica (43%).
Since 2019, El Salvador has been governed by Nayib Bukele, who implemented a harsh policy of persecution of gangs that has earned him an approval rate of more than 90%, despite the fact that this measure has been criticized by human rights organizations.
In September 2022, Bukele announced his decision to seek re-election after the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice issued a resolution enabling presidential re-election. The measure is criticized by various organizations that warn about the growing authoritarianism of Bukele.
Regarding the growing support for El Salvador, political scientist Daniel Grimaldi, Executive Director of Fundación Chile 21, explains that “when citizens are asked about democracy, rather than thinking about the ‘principles’ that govern democracy, what lies behind the question for them is an ‘evaluation’ of governments that consider themselves democratic. What happens is that there are governments that consider themselves democratic, but are incapable of solving the problems that affect the people, among others, provide health and education, fight crime”.
It is from the negative evaluations that people make of the performance of governments that claim to be democratic that “authoritarian figures can emerge as an alternative,” Grimaldi stresses. “Also, if they are effective, as is the case with Bukele, there are people who are willing to support them,” she adds. .
El Salvador de Bukele, a case of ‘elected-dictatorship’
The Latinobarómetro study was not applied in Nicaragua in 2023, country number 18, because there are no security conditions for pollsters during the Daniel Ortega dictatorship. The report also underlines that in Nicaragua and Venezuela dictatorships currently govern that, although they hold electoral processes, are not democratic, which is why they are not considered in the analysis of the elections.
The study also recalls that “dictators are not chosen.” However, it stresses that in Latin America some of them have indeed been “elected”, which the organization considers “a ‘soft’ way of becoming a dictator.” That is why in the report they are called “elected-dictatorships”:
“What the Latinobarómetro report points out is that there are authoritarian governments that come to power through democracy, as is the case with Bukele. It comes through elections, but then it becomes an authoritarian government. So there is also confusion about the principles of democracy from the same governments that use democracy and then twist it,” Daniel Grimaldi told RFI.
According to Latinobarómetro, Uruguay is currently the country that most supports democracy, with 69%, followed by Argentina, with 62%; Chile, with 58%; and Venezuela, with 57%.
Regarding the case of Uruguay, the political scientist Daniel Grimaldi commented the following to RFI: “Uruguay is the country where democracy is most adhered to. There, citizens are the most reluctant to accept an authoritarian government. Uruguay is a society where we see that the welfare state and social policies work relatively better than in other countries. We could say that the southern countries that have developed democracies have a better distribution of rewards in society, a better distribution of income, better levels of education, health, etc. tera, are more prone to citizens being able to value democracy”.
The survey was carried out between February 20 and April 18 and has a margin of error of 3%.
