Two conceptions of democracy clash in El Salvador

The line that separates democracy from dictatorship can sometimes be easy to spot.

When government authorities in Venezuela banned most opposition candidates ahead of the 2018 presidential election, amid an unprecedented economic crisis that was likely to result in a loss at the polls, few non-partisan viewers still believed that the contest was free or fair.

On the opposite side of the ideological spectrum, the same could be said of Guatemala, where Bernardo Arévalo was lucky to reach the presidency. Authorities banned most opposition candidates, but he survived the initial onslaught, likely because they didn’t think he stood a real shot at winning. When he shocked everyone at the ballots and a legal case against his party was manufactured, it was already too late to stop him.

But Nayib Bukele’s case in El Salvador is different. Unlike Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela or the traditional ruling elites in Guatemala, his popularity is undeniable. In fact, it is much higher than that of any other leader in the continent.

Some are still questioning whether his landslide February 4 re-election was clean — based on problems with the vote counting system, which are likely to force a recount. But even international observers from the Organization of American States (OAS) said Mr. Bukele’s landslide win was real and unrelated to technical problems. 

Others point to Mr. Bukele’s control of the country’s Legislative and Judiciary branches, which allowed him to circumvent term limit rules through charitable readings of the law, similar to what Evo Morales once did in Bolivia.

But again, this power over courts...