El Salvador's Nayib Bukele remains the most popular president in Latin America, with a 69.1% approval rating, according to the June ranking published last week by pollster CB Global Data, which surveyed between 1,988 and 2,674 people in each country measured.

The self-styled "world's coolest dictator", whose sweeping crackdown on the country's gangs under a prolonged state of exception has drawn criticism from human rights groups but driven homicide rates to historic lows, has consistently led regional popularity surveys since taking office in 2019. The security turnaround has underpinned a boom in tourism and foreign investment, while Bukele has emerged as one of US President Donald Trump's closest allies in the region.

Mexico's Claudia Sheinbaum retained second place with 65.5%. The first woman to lead Mexico, Sheinbaum took office in October 2024 and has largely preserved the leftist political coalition built by her predecessor and mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Despite ideological differences, she has defused successive tariff and security disputes with Washington by carefully cultivating a pragmatic working relationship with President Trump.

Costa Rica's Laura Fernández completed the podium on 56.1%, an improvement on the previous month. Fernández, a 39-year-old conservative political scientist, was sworn in on May 8 promising a hard line against organised crime and drug trafficking, having won February's election as the continuity candidate of outgoing president Rodrigo Chaves, who retains a powerful role in her cabinet.

The Dominican Republic's Luis Abinader, re-elected to a second term in 2024 on the strength of the country's robust economic growth, ranked fourth with 54.8%, while Paraguay's Santiago Peña, the Colorado party economist in office since 2023, was fifth on 48.3%.

At the other end of the table, Peru's acting president José María Balcázar recorded the region's lowest rating, at 18.2%. The 83-year-old Peru Libre lawmaker was elevated by Congress in February after legislators removed his predecessor, José Jerí, amid corruption allegations, making him the latest in a rapid succession of Peruvian presidents over the past decade as the country faces growing political instability. He is due to hand over power on July 28, though his successor remains unknown: the June 7 runoff between right-wing Keiko Fujimori and leftist Roberto Sánchez is still too close to call, with the count dragging into a possible recount fight.

Venezuela's Delcy Rodríguez, who heads the interim government under de facto US tutelage installed after Nicolás Maduro's removal from power, polled 29.5%, though she registered the largest month-on-month improvement in the survey, gaining 5.4 percentage points.

Guatemala's Bernardo Arévalo, the anti-corruption reformer whose presidency has been marked by sustained confrontation with the country's attorney-general, completed the bottom three on 33.1%.

Bolivia's Rodrigo Paz, now seventh in the table, suffered the sharpest decline in the poll, with his positive image falling 9.2 percentage points in a single month. His centrist government is grappling with a deepening economic crisis and mounting unrest stoked by former president Evo Morales, prompting Paz recently to seek emergency powers legislation.