An AI-generated image created for Our Life in El Salvador. Reflecting how national political change reaches from the institutions of San Salvador to everyday life in communities such as Cara Sucia.
Reflections from Cara Sucia, July 2026
This morning, I found an article in Diario El Salvador about a newly presented book. It examines the political and social changes taking place in the country.
Researcher and professor Francisco Martínez wrote the book El Salvador: El Régimen Político-Social 2025. The Centro de Estudios Internacionales “Héctor Oquelí” presented it to the public.
The book has an ambitious purpose. It examines the legitimacy, governability, and evolution of the Salvadoran State. It focuses on one of the most significant periods of political change in the country’s recent history.
This is not a story designed to shock readers or dominate social media. Instead, it offers something often missing from political debate. It uses history and research to interpret current events. It also examines how governments and societies change over time.
At a time when political debate is frequently reduced to slogans, accusations, and arguments between opposing sides, a serious effort to study what has happened in El Salvador deserves attention.
Understanding the Path Since 2019
Vice President Félix Ulloa described the book as an exploration of the political causes and processes that have shaped El Salvador since President Nayib Bukele’s election in 2019.
That election did more than bring a new president into office. It brought an end to the political dominance of the two parties that had governed El Salvador throughout most of the postwar period. It also opened the door to changes in public security, municipal organization, the Legislative Assembly, government institutions, and the relationship between citizens and the State.
In his discussion of the book, Ulloa argues that the political transformation cannot be understood simply as a change of parties or personalities. He presents it as a deeper change in how Salvadorans view their government, their security, and their expectations for the future. a reader agrees with every conclusion or not, that is a subject worthy of study.
Too much commentary about El Salvador begins with a predetermined conclusion. Some observers describe nearly every government action as proof of national renewal. Others interpret the same actions as evidence of democratic decline.
Between those two positions lies the more difficult work of examining history, institutions, public opinion, security, economic challenges, and the experiences of ordinary Salvadorans.
That appears to be the space this book is trying to enter.
Looking Beyond the Daily Political Noise
Ulloa noted that the book helps fill a void left by narratives that lack academic support and do not always reflect the reality experienced by Salvadorans.
That observation resonates with me.
International reports about El Salvador sometimes describe a country that feels very different from the one many of us experience in our daily lives. At the same time, no government should be judged only by favorable headlines or personal experiences. A complete understanding requires evidence, context, and a willingness to examine both achievements and unresolved challenges.
Academic work can contribute to that understanding.
The registered digital edition of El Salvador: El Régimen Político-Social 2025 is divided into four parts and includes two appendices. Its description identifies the book as a study of the theoretical foundations and political processes behind changes of government in El Salvador, with President Bukele occupying a central role in its analysis; this does not mean the book is without a viewpoint. No serious political work is completely separated from the author’s interpretation of events.
What matters is whether the arguments are explained, whether history is considered, and whether readers are given enough information to think more deeply about the country’s direction.
A Call to Memory and Responsibility
During the presentation, Martínez emphasized the importance of understanding the political events that preceded the changes beginning in 2019.
He described the book as a historical account of the moments Salvadoran society has lived through. Its purpose is not merely to describe the present, but to trace the events and decisions that brought the country to this point.
His warning is simple but important:
“If we do not take those antecedents, the possibility that we commit those same mistakes is always present.”
Every country carries the memory of its past, even when people would prefer to forget parts of it.
El Salvador remembers military governments, civil war, political violence, the Peace Accords, the rise of the ARENA-FMLN political system, widespread corruption, gang control, extortion, migration, and communities that often felt abandoned by the State.
Those experiences did not disappear in 2019. They helped create the conditions that made political change possible.
Understanding those antecedents does not require Salvadorans to agree on every interpretation. It requires us to recognize that the present did not appear from nowhere.
Political Change as Seen From Cara Sucia
For those of us living far from the capital, discussions about the “political-social regime” can sound distant and overly academic.
Here in Cara Sucia, mornings begin with vendors preparing for the day, and the smell of tortillas warming on comales. People are usually more concerned about the price of food, the condition of the roads, employment, medical care, and the safety of their families than they are about political theory.
Yet the evolution of the State reaches us here as surely as it reaches San Salvador.
It influences whether families feel safe traveling after dark. It also affects whether small businesses can operate without fear of extortion. Beyond security, the State shapes schools, hospitals, roads, public services, investment, tourism, and public trust in national institutions.
Political change is not only something discussed in government buildings or university classrooms. It is experienced in communities.
That is why books like this can be valuable. They help connect the decisions made in the capital with the realities lived throughout the country.
A Contribution, Not the Final Word
Martínez describes the book not primarily as a commercial product, but as a political contribution. It is an invitation for Salvadorans to read their own reality, recognize the mistakes to which the country should not return, and accept responsibility for creating new forms of political coexistence.
That final point may be the most important.
El Salvador cannot build its future only by rejecting the past. It must also decide what kind of institutions, responsibilities, and relationships should replace what came before.
A country needs more than security. It also needs functioning institutions, economic opportunity, accessible public services, accountability, citizen participation, and confidence that national progress can continue beyond any single political leader.
One book cannot answer every question about those matters. Nor should it.
Its value lies in encouraging a deeper conversation.
Readers should approach it thoughtfully, compare its arguments with other sources, and decide where its interpretation is convincing and where further discussion is needed. Political maturity does not require everyone to reach the same conclusions. It requires people to engage with ideas without immediately treating disagreement as hostility.
A Resource Available to the Public
The digital edition is available to the public, and that accessibility matters. A downloadable version was shared with the earlier published discussion of the book, while the national ISBN catalog also records a digital PDF edition. Analysis should not be confined to universities, government offices, or private meetings in San Salvador.
It belongs to the public.
Salvadorans should have the opportunity to read different interpretations of their history, examine the evidence, and participate in the discussion about where the country is going.
Closing Reflection
El Salvador continues to redefine itself.
Some changes have been rapid and highly visible. Others are slower, more complicated, and less likely to appear in a headline. We are not observing this transformation from a distance. We are living inside it.
Works such as El Salvador: El Régimen Político-Social 2025 give us an opportunity to pause and look beyond the events of a single day. They invite us to consider the broader arc of our national story: where the country has been, why the old political order lost the confidence of so many citizens, and what responsibilities come with building something new.
The book should not be regarded as the final word on El Salvador’s political transformation. No single author, institution, political party, or government can provide that.
But it offers another lens through which to examine our present.
Sometimes a new lens is exactly what we need—not to tell us what to think, but to help us see more clearly what is happening around us.
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