The party of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele approved constitutional changes allowing indefinite presidential reelection and the extension of presidential terms to six years.

The initiative also gets rid of the presidential runoff, which pitted the two top performers in a second round. It was overwhelmingly approved by Bukele’s New Ideas party, which holds a supermajority in Congress. Only three of Congress’ 60 lawmakers opposed.

Bukele’s party had already allowed him to continue in power despite constitutional bans. Last year he won reelection with overwhelming support after Supreme Court judges elected by his party allowed him to run for reelection.

The Associated Press noted that observers have worried about the possibility that Bukele will seek to perpetuate himself in office for years, especially since his party voted to remove the judges of the Supreme Court’s constitutional chamber, removing the last constitutional check in place.

The outlet also made a brief analysis of the political situation in the country, saying many Salvadorans have chosen to overlook accusations of human rights abuses and deals with powerful gangs because of the improved security situation.

Several investigations have accused Bukele of cutting a deal with the leaders of the MS-13 gang in the early years of his presidency. In May, a gang leader revealed a deal to help propel him to power and keep him there.

Carlos Cartagena Lopez, a leader of the Barrio 18 Revolutionaries, made the revelations while talking to El Faro, an outlet critical of Bukele.

The now president launched a war on gangs in 2022 after a massacre where 87 people were killed by criminal organizations. Ever since, his administration has incarcerated tens of thousands of people.

According to the Washington Office on Latin America, by March this year there were over 110,000 people in prison in the country, which now has the highest incarceration rate in the world. El País noted that 400 people have also died without trial, many with signs of torture.

The Bukele government has also substantially reduced violent crime since, with the homicide rate falling by more than 80%, according to the National Civil Police.

Bukele has long denied negotiations, but his administration has resisted extraditing MS-13 leaders to the U.S., raising speculation about his desire to keep their testimony out of American courts.

Moreover, his government also reportedly offered the Trump administration a 50% discount in the fee it charges for holding suspected gang members at its infamous mega-prison in exchange for receiving nine MS-13 members living in the United States.

The offer, accepted by the Trump administration, was reported by CNN and was part of negotiations between the two governments before hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members were sent to the Central American country.

Activists and opposition leaders have warned that El Salvador is following Venezuela’s path towards dictatorship after the Central American country’s congress scrapped presidential term limits, paving the way for Nayib Bukele to seek indefinite re-election.

“Democracy in El Salvador has died,” opposition congresswoman Marcela Villatoro declared late on Thursday as the legislature – in which Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas party controls 90% of seats – approved the highly controversial constitutional reform, by 57 votes to three.

Villatoro accused fellow lawmakers of dealing a “death blow” to the country’s democratic system during the late-night session. “Today some people applaud this. Tomorrow they will regret it,” she said, comparing El Salvador’s slide into authoritarianism to the collapse of Venezuela’s democracy.

“When all the orders come from one person and everything revolves around one single person, democracy no longer exists. And when you lose democracy … it takes years to get it back,” Villatoro warned.

Loyalists of Bukele – a social media-savvy 44-year-old who once called himself “the world’s coolest dictator” – celebrated the reforms, which will also see presidential terms extended from five years to six and bring the presidential election scheduled for 2029 forward to 2027. The election’s second round will also be scrapped.

Suecy Callejas, one of 54 Nuevas Ideas lawmakers in El Salvador’s 60-seat assembly, tweeted: “The constitution isn’t untouchable. What should be untouchable is the WILL of the people. And today, more than ever, the people are at the centre of our decisions.”

Bukele, who is one of Donald Trump’s top Latin American allies, was first elected in 2019 and was re-elected last year thanks to widespread public support for his hardline crackdown on gangs, which has seen homicide rates plummet.

That three-year clampdown has seen 2% of El Salvador’s adult population jailed and due process suspended, and made Bukele a role model for rightwing Latin American politicians grappling with high crime rates, and for members of Trump’s Maga movement.

But Bukele’s concentration of power has horrified opposition politicians and activists. Juanita Goebertus, Human Rights Watch’s Americas director, compared El Salvador’s scrapping of presidential term limits to Venezuela’s 2009 referendum, which approved the same measure under its then populist president Hugo Chávez.

Sixteen years later, Chávez’s heir, Nicolás Maduro, remains in power, having claimed a third term last year despite apparently losing the July 2024 election. “[El Salvador is] traveling down the same path as Venezuela,” Goebertus warned. “It starts with a leader who uses his popularity to concentrate power, and it ends in dictatorship.”

In a rare interview with the foreign media last year, Bukele said he would not seek re-election, citing the constitutional “prohibition” which was this week removed. “Also, we have an agreement with my wife that this is my last term,” Bukele told Time magazine, musing that he might write a book after leaving power.

Few believe Bukele will honour that pledge. “Welcome to the club of the authoritarian dictatorships of Maduro, [Daniel] Ortega, [Miguel] Díaz Canel,” tweeted Carlos Fernando Chamorro, a prominent Nicaraguan journalist forced into exile because of his country’s democratic decline.

Donald Trump said he was weighing forcing journalists who published leaked details from a US intelligence report assessing the impact of the recent American military strikes on Iran to reveal their sources – and the president also claimed his administration may prosecute those reporters and sources if they do not comply.

In an interview on Sunday with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Trump doubled down on his claim that the 21 June airstrikes aimed at certain Iranian facilities successfully crippled Iran’s nuclear program. He insisted the attacks destroyed key enriched uranium stockpiles, despite Iranian assertions that the material had been relocated before the strikes.

Trump dismissed the leaked intelligence assessment in question – which suggested the strikes only temporarily disrupted Iran’s nuclear development – as incomplete and biased. The report, circulated among US lawmakers and intelligence officials, concluded that the damage inflicted was significantly less than what Trump’s administration had publicly claimed.

The president has attacked both Democratic lawmakers and members of the media for sharing portions of the classified analysis. He then threatened legal consequences for those responsible.

During the interview, Bartiromo referenced a post Trump had shared on social media days earlier, in which he wrote: “The Democrats are the ones who leaked the information on the PERFECT FLIGHT to the Nuclear Sites in Iran. They should be prosecuted!”

Trump then reiterated on-air that “they should be prosecuted”.

“Who specifically?” Bartiromo asked.

Trump replied: “You can find out – if they wanted, they could find out easily.”

In recent days, Trump has targeted CNN and the New York Times for their reporting on the strikes. He has condemned the coverage as “unpatriotic” and even floated the possibility of legal action.

The two outlets, along with several others, reported that preliminary findings from the US’s Defense Intelligence Agency indicated the strikes had only limited success. The bombings delayed Iran’s nuclear ambitions by several months but stopped short of destroying the program outright, according to the assessment.

On Sunday, a social media account belonging to the Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accused Trump of needing to “exaggerate to cover up the truth and keep it secret” after the recent US military strikes “could not do anything”.

Trump, in contrast, has repeatedly insisted that three nuclear facilities were “obliterated”.

He elaborated on how his administration might pursue the sources of the leak.

“You go up and tell the reporter, ‘national security – who gave it?’” Trump said. “You have to do that. And I suspect we’ll be doing things like that.”

In the US, the constitution generally protects journalists from being compelled to reveal their sources – but there are limits to that reporter’s privilege, as it is colloquially known.

The president had threatened to sue CNN and the New York Times for publishing articles about the preliminary intelligence report ahead of his comments to Bartiromo.

In a letter to the Times, a lawyer for Trump said the article had damaged the president’s reputation and demanded that the outlet “retract and apologize for” the piece, which the letter described as “false,” “defamatory” and “unpatriotic”.

A 5-month-old boy was killed by a 130-pound dog after being left with relatives who were watching the baby as his mom celebrated her birthday, police said.

The Volusia Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded to a home near Ormond Beach around 9:50 p.m. Wednesday , where the infant’s great-grandmother and great aunt were watching him as his parents were out at his mother’s 21st birthday dinner.

Officials said the family members put the infant, Carter, in a bedroom after becoming fussy and shut the door. While the great-aunt made tea and toast, she let her three dogs out of their kennels. Investigators said a Great Dane/Husky mix opened the bedroom door, and the great-aunt later found Carter bleeding and unresponsive with the 130-pound dog beside him.

Carter’s parents returned home and rushed him to the hospital, but he died from his injuries.

“This young mother will remember on her birthday that her child is dead,” he said. “It is so, so, so tragic. This was supposed to be a great night, and now I just can’t imagine how anyone in this family feels,” Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said in a press conference.

Volusia County Animal Services took custody of the dog, which usually holds animals in quarantine for 10 days. After that, the family can appeal before the dog is euthanized.

In this case, the dog was classified as “dangerous,” giving officials the authority to euthanize it. The family chose not to appeal the decision and surrendered the dog, which was euthanized Thursday.

Randa Matusiak, Volusia County’s director of public protection, said that there had been no prior calls related to the home, adding that dog attacks are “rare occurrences” in the area.

“It is a tragic accident,” Matusiak said. “It’s difficult because any dog has the potential of doing some harm. It’s important to be aware of the dog when it’s in your house, to understand dog behavior, to make sure you’re properly socializing that dog and monitoring it.”

In a chilling twist, photos taken by Fox 35 Orlando captured a Halloween-like yard decor, including a large human skeleton and a dog skeleton in the front yard of the home dressed in Hawaiian shirts and surrounded by beach gear.

A yard sign also read, “Crazy dogs live here. Do not knock. They will bark. I will yell. Things will get ugly.”

Chitwood asked community members to be compassionate in this situation as the incident remains under investigation.

Representatives take part in a session of the Salvadoran congress to discuss reforms to the constitution, in San Salvador, El Salvador July 31, 2025. REUTERS/ Jose Cabezas Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

Item 1 of 4 Representatives take part in a session of the Salvadoran congress to discuss reforms to the constitution, in San Salvador, El Salvador July 31, 2025. REUTERS/ Jose Cabezas

SAN SALVADOR, July 31 (Reuters) – El Salvador’s ruling party on Thursday passed a bill to overhaul how elections are run in the Central American nation, opening the door for President Nayib Bukele to serve another term.

Bukele won a second term last year despite a clear prohibition in the country’s constitution. El Salvador’s top court, filled with Bukele-backed judges, ruled in 2021 that it was the leader’s human right to run again.

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The constitutional amendment passed on Thursday by Bukele’s New Ideas party, which dominates Congress, will allow indefinite presidential re-election, extend terms from five years to six and scrap run-offs.

After his re-election last year, Bukele told reporters he “didn’t think a constitutional reform would be necessary,” but evaded questions on whether he would try to run for a third term.

The bill passed 57-3 as Congress prepares to break for recess.

The overhaul will also shorten the president’s current term to synchronize elections in 2027, as presidential, legislative and municipal elections are currently staggered.

Consolidating the voting schedule would likely favor the ruling party across the board.

“This is quite simple, El Salvador: only you will have the power to decide how long you wish to support the work of any public official, including your president,” said lawmaker Ana Figueroa, a New Ideas member who proposed the bill for the constitutional changes. “You have the power to decide how long you support your president and all elected officials.”

The few non-ruling party lawmakers in Congress opposed the proposal over concerns it will entrench one-party rule in the country.

“Today, democracy has died in El Salvador,” said legislator Marcela Villatoro of the opposition Republican National Alliance (ARENA).

Bukele remains one of the most popular leaders in the region, largely due to his across-the-board crackdown on gangs that has caused homicides to plummet, despite an outcry from human rights groups, which say innocent people have been caught up in the dragnet.

“The day before vacation, without debate, without informing the public, in a single legislative vote, they changed the political system to allow the president to perpetuate himself in power indefinitely and we continue to follow the well-traveled path of autocrats,” said Noah Bullock, executive director of rights group Cristosal.

The group recently left El Salvador , declaring itself in exile due to Bukele’s drive to consolidate his grip on power and crack down on critics and humanitarian organizations.

Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Additional reporting by Sarah Kinosian; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Natalia Siniawski and Christian Schmollinger

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