That whole region will never get better, it's the same every decade, they have a hundred thousand problems, the comes an authoritarian/dictator president, fixes a bit of stuff, leaves a disaster in the others aspects of the economy, people get rid of it, then some regret it because they remember it has fixed 1% , then the next one comes with promises to do better and so on.
So what do you propose they should do? Sit down, give up and stop trying?
The average IQ score in El Salvador is something around 70. With a population like that, their best bet is to put some intelligent, benevolent dictator to get things sorted out, even the hard way. Modern democracies (that are a farce anyway) are not a universal fix for all and simply doesn't work in some regions.
Of course, one man can't do much on his own and he'll need to build solid structures including preparing his potential successors, but even then, if he becomes inconvenience to the world elites, he'll get overthrown with a "spontaneous" revolution.