Editing El Salvador (section)

==Government and politics==
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| image1            = Presidente Nayib Bukele (cropped).jpg
| image2            = Félix Ulloa with the TSE (cropped).jpg
| caption1          = [[Nayib Bukele]]<br /><small>[[President of El Salvador]]<br />since 2019</small>
| caption2          = [[Félix Ulloa]]<br /><small>[[Vice President of El Salvador]]<br />since 2019</small>
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The 1983 constitution has the highest legal authority in the country. El Salvador has a democratic and representative government, whose three bodies are:
# The Executive Branch, headed by the President of the Republic, who is elected by direct vote and remains in office for five years with no re-election but can be elected after sitting out one electoral period. The president has a Cabinet of Ministers whom he appoints, and is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
# The Legislative Branch, called El Salvador's Legislative Assembly (unicameral), consisting of 84 deputies.
# The Judiciary, headed by the Supreme Court, which is composed of 15 judges, one of them being elected as President of the Judiciary.

The political framework of El Salvador is a [[presidential system|presidential]] [[representative democracy|representative democratic]] [[republic]] with a multiform, multi-party system. The [[President of El Salvador|president]], currently [[Nayib Bukele]], is both [[head of state]] and [[head of government]]. [[Executive (government)|Executive power]] is exercised by the government. [[Legislature|Legislative power]] is vested in both the government and the [[Legislative Assembly of El Salvador|Legislative Assembly]]. The country also has an independent judiciary and [[Supreme Court of El Salvador|Supreme Court]]. It was ranked the 5th least electoral [[democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean|democratic country in Latin America and the Caribbean]] in 2023 by [[V-Dem Institute#Democracy Report|V-Dem Democracy Report]].<ref name="vdem report">{{Cite web |url=https://www.v-dem.net/documents/29/V-dem_democracyreport2023_lowres.pdf |title=Democracy Report 2023, Table 3, V-Dem Institute, 2023 |access-date=3 February 2024 |archive-date=23 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230523162326/https://v-dem.net/documents/29/V-dem_democracyreport2023_lowres.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Politics===
{{Main|Politics of El Salvador}}
{{Further|List of political parties in El Salvador}}
[[File:XIII Legislative Assembly of El Salvador.jpg|thumb|[[Legislative Assembly of El Salvador]]]]
El Salvador has a [[multi-party system]]. Two [[political parties]], the [[Nationalist Republican Alliance]] (ARENA) and the [[Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front]] (FMLN) have tended to dominate elections. ARENA candidates won four consecutive presidential elections until the election of [[Mauricio Funes]] of the FMLN in March 2009. The FMLN Party is leftist in ideology, and is split between the dominant [[Marxist-Leninist]] faction in the legislature, and the [[Social liberalism|social liberal]] wing led by Mauricio Funes until 2014. However, the two-party dominance was broken after [[Nayib Bukele]], a candidate from [[Grand Alliance for National Unity|GANA]] won the [[2019 Salvadoran presidential election]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Delcid |first1=Merlin |last2=Guy |first2=Jack |title=The strange political path of Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's new President |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/09/americas/el-salvador-president-bukele-profile-intl/index.html |website=CNN |date=10 February 2019 |access-date=27 March 2021 |archive-date=29 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210329041921/https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/09/americas/el-salvador-president-bukele-profile-intl/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In February 2021, the results of [[2021 Salvadoran legislative election|legislative election]] caused a major change in the politics of El Salvador. The new allied party of president Nayib Bukele, [[Nuevas Ideas]] (New Ideas) won the biggest congressional majority in the country's history.<ref name=centralamerica/>

[[Departments of El Salvador|The departments]] of the Central region, especially the capital and the coastal regions, known as ''{{lang|es|departamentos rojos}}'' (red departments) are relatively leftist. The ''{{lang|es|departamentos azules}}'' (blue departments) in the east, western and highland regions are relatively conservative.<ref name=bbcnews/>

=== Foreign relations ===
{{Main|Foreign relations of El Salvador}}
[[File:Secretary Pompeo Participates in Signing Ceremony for the CSL Lease Extension - 48342132177.jpg|thumb| U.S. Secretary of State [[Mike Pompeo]] participates in a signing ceremony for the CSL Lease Extension with Salvadoran President [[Nayib Bukele]].]]
El Salvador is a member of the [[United Nations]] and several of its specialized agencies. It is also member of the [[Organization of American States]], the [[Central American Parliament]], and the [[Central American Integration System]] among others. It actively participates in the Central American Security Commission, which seeks to promote regional arms control. El Salvador is a member of the [[World Trade Organization]] and is pursuing regional free trade agreements. An active participant in the [[Summits of the Americas|Summit of the Americas]] process, El Salvador chairs a working group on market access under the [[Free Trade Area of the Americas]] initiative.
[[File:Elementos de seguridad en CECOT.jpg|thumb|right|220px|Soldiers and police officers]]
In November 1950, El Salvador was the only country to help the newly empowered [[14th Dalai Lama]] by supporting his [[Tibet (1912–1951)|Tibetan]] Government cabinet minister's telegram requesting an appeal before the [[United Nations General Assembly|General Assembly of the United Nations]] to stop the [[annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China]].<ref name="The Story of Tibet" /> With no other countries in support, "the UN unanimously dropped the Tibetan plea from its agenda".<ref name=":0" />

El Salvador is a party to the [[Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://asp.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/asp/states%20parties/latin%20american%20and%20caribbean%20states/Pages/latin%20american%20and%20caribbean%20states.aspx |title=Latin American and Caribbean State Parties to the Rome Statute, International Criminal Court. Retrieved 10 July 2021 |access-date=16 November 2021 |archive-date=9 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210809030312/https://asp.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/asp/states%20parties/latin%20american%20and%20caribbean%20states/Pages/latin%20american%20and%20caribbean%20states.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite press release |last1=El Abdallah |first1=Fadi |date=22 October 2021 |title=Vice President of El Salvador visits International Criminal Court |url=https://www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/item.aspx?name=pr1620 |url-status=live |type=Press release |language=en, es |publisher=Head of Public Affairs Unit, International Criminal Court |access-date=16 November 2021 |quote=On 22 October 2021, H.E. Mr Félix Ulloa, Vice President of El Salvador, visited the International Criminal Court (ICC), where he was received by the President of the Court, Judge Piotr Hofmański, ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan QC and ICC Registrar Peter Lewis. |archive-date=6 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206130956/https://www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/item.aspx?name=pr1620 }}</ref>

=== Incarceration ===

As of February 2025, El Salvador had the highest prisoner rate worldwide, with over 1,600 prisoners per 100,000 of the national population.<ref>{{cite web |title=Most prisoners per capita by country 2025 {{!}} Statista |url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/262962/countries-with-the-most-prisoners-per-100-000-inhabitants/ |website=Statista |language=en}}</ref> 

El Salvador’s [[Terrorism Confinement Center]] (CECOT) mega-prison is considered the largest prison in the Americas with a capacity of 40,000 inmates. The incarcerations have been part of president Bukele’s efforts to reduce high crime rates and gang violence.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Rios |first1=Michael |title=What we know about El Salvador’s ‘mega prison’ where Trump is sending alleged Venezuelan gang members |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/17/americas/el-salvador-prison-trump-deportations-gangs-intl-latam/index.html |work=CNN |date=17 March 2025 |language=en}}</ref> In March 2025, the United States transferred more than 200 immigrants, alleging them to be members of a Venezuelan gang, to be imprisoned in El Salvador in violation of court orders.<ref>{{cite news |title=US deports over 200 Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador despite court ban |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/16/venezuelan-immigrants-deported-to-el-salvador-despite-us-court-ban |work=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref>

=== Military ===
{{Main|Armed Forces of El Salvador}}
The [[Armed Forces of El Salvador]] have three branches: the [[Salvadoran Army]], the [[Salvadoran Air Force]] and the [[Navy of El Salvador]]. There are around 25,000 personnel in the armed forces in total.<ref name=IISSp413>{{cite book| url=https://www.iiss.org/publications/the-military-balance/the-military-balance-2021| title=The Military Balance 2021| author1=International Institute for Strategic Studies| author-link1=International Institute for Strategic Studies| date=25 February 2021| publisher=[[Routledge]]| location=[[London]]| page= 413| isbn=9781032012278}}</ref>

===Human rights===
{{Main|Human rights in El Salvador}}
[[Amnesty International]] has drawn attention to several arrests of police officers for unlawful police killings. Other issues to gain Amnesty International's attention include missing children, failure of law enforcement to properly investigate and prosecute crimes against women properly, and rendering [[labor unions|organized labour]] illegal.<ref>{{cite web |title=El Salvador Human Rights |url=http://www.amnestyusa.org/all-countries/el-salvador/page.do?id=1011148 |website=Amnesty International |access-date=17 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429054839/http://www.amnestyusa.org/all-countries/el-salvador/page.do?id=1011148 |archive-date=29 April 2011 }}</ref>

Abortion is banned, with no exceptions for rape, incest, or threat to the mother's life; as a result, 180 women have been imprisoned in the last two decades, some for up to 30 years.<ref>{{cite web |title=Woman who suffered miscarriage sentenced to 30 years for aggravated homicide in El Salvador — The Independent |url=https://apple.news/AELY_WYA9TxubvdEblX4flw |access-date=12 May 2022 |website=apple.news |archive-date=13 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513031850/https://apple.news/AELY_WYA9TxubvdEblX4flw |url-status=live }}</ref> Discrimination against [[LGBT rights in El Salvador|LGBT people]] in El Salvador is very widespread.<ref>{{cite news |title=LGBT in El Salvador: Beatings, intolerance, death |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/08/lgbt-el-salvador-beatings-intolerance-death-150805075132892.html |work=Al-Jazeera |date=12 August 2015 |access-date=14 August 2019 |archive-date=14 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190814122215/https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/08/lgbt-el-salvador-beatings-intolerance-death-150805075132892.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title='Terrorized at home', Central America's LGBT people to flee for their lives: report |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-latam-lgbt-rights/terrorized-at-home-central-americas-lgbt-people-to-flee-for-their-lives-report-idUSKBN1DR28O |work=Reuters |date=27 November 2017 |access-date=14 August 2019 |archive-date=26 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190426045942/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-latam-lgbt-rights/terrorized-at-home-central-americas-lgbt-people-to-flee-for-their-lives-report-idUSKBN1DR28O |url-status=live }}</ref> According to a 2013 survey by [[Pew Research Center|Pew Research]], 53% of Salvadorans believe that [[homosexuality]] should not be accepted by society.<ref name="pewglobal.org">{{Cite web |title=LGBT Rights in El Salvador |url=https://www.equaldex.com/region/el-salvador |website=equaldex.com}}</ref> Although homosexuality itself is legal, gay marriage is legally not recognized, as proposals were rejected twice in 2006, and once again in 2009.

===Administrative divisions===
{{Further|Departments of El Salvador}}

El Salvador is [[Departments of El Salvador|divided into 14 departments]] (''departamentos''), which in turn are subdivided into 44 [[Municipalities of El Salvador|municipalities]] (''municipios'') which are also divided into 262 districts.

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{{El Salvador labeled map}}
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