Salvadorans overwhelmingly approve of Nayib Bukele's performance so far

According to poll results released by the Salvadoran newspaper La Prensa Grafica on Friday, Nayib Bukele finishes his first three months in office as the president of El Salvador with an historically high approval rating of 90.4%.   Only a tiny 4.4% of Salvadorans disapprove of the job he is doing.  This is 15-20 points higher than Mauricio Funes and Tony Saca at the same points in their terms in office, and more than 50 points higher than Bukele's immediate predecessor Sanchez Ceren.

The numbers are really quite striking.   Bukele achieved the presidency outside of the formerly dominant parties, ARENA and the FMLN.  Now large blocks of the traditional supporters of those two parties are saying they approve of this president from the "New Ideas" party.   Bukele's popularity gives him tremendous bargaining power with the deputies in the National Assembly who have to fear that opposing Bukele could cost them their seats in the 2021 elections. 

The reason for Bukele's high marks is certainly related to the belief of many that the government is now effectively battling crime and violence.  There has been a dramatic reversal in just three months from the Sanchez Ceren administration when more than 72% thought the government was doing a bad or very bad job on citizen security to today when 44.7% believer the government is doing a good job and only 29.3% believe the government is doing a bad or very bad job on security.

Security -- light blue is bad/very bad and dark blue is good/very good

                                     
Talking with Salvadorans of all walks of life, in both rural and urban areas, you get a sense of optimism.  This was also reflected in the recent poll results.   For the first time in 15 years, more Salvadorans believe the country is on the correct path than believe it is on the wrong path.  In fact, two-thirds believe the country is on the right path:

Trajectory of the country -- dark blue line is percentage answering
El Salvador is on the right path 

(All graphics from the LPG articles describing the poll results).