Sonja Wolf

Research Professor @UPMexico. Contributing Editor: Current History (@ucpress). Book: Mano Dura (@UTexasPress). Film: The Vertical Border. Views my own.

[Sonja Wolf @scwolf5]

#ElSalvador’s elected autocrat claims to have ended gang violence. Soft power is central to Bukele’s efforts to legitimize his rule through these results. Yet the tactic invites greater scrutiny, revealing the state’s inability to tackle violence.

https://t.co/06vK73Ntmk

[Sonja Wolf @scwolf5]

The Bukele Method

El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele exerts full control over the country’s institutions. He neutralizes threats to his power through strategic communication and targeted repression.

Read the article on my Substack: https://t.co/VR01ApAbZX

[NACLA Report @NACLA]

📚Óscar Martínez’s profile of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele unmasks an authoritarian leader who hangs on to power through propaganda, gang pacts, and repression.

Read Sonja Wolf's (@scwolf5) review 👇
https://t.co/9p860EpSDy

[Orlando J. Pérez @Perez1oj]

@lasaintcongress Thank you @scwolf5 for organizing the session & @MPaarlberg for comments. Great session on Democratic Erosion & Authoritarian Regression in Central America.

My paper had good news & bad: when age effects are controlled for the post-transition generation are not less democratic in principle than older generations. However, Northern Triangle youth are 20% more supportive of executive aggrandizement (closing congress) than their Costa Rican cohorts (CR was the control). #LASA2026

[Sonja Wolf @scwolf5]

Calling a hybrid regime a dictatorship is analytically imprecise and often strategically self-defeating.

High-profile campaigns to curb human rights abuses can backfire: putting the regime under pressure can lead to hardening.