No he didn't, at all. AFAIK there were no formal approval polls at the time, but Stalin himself acknowledged his 'popularity' with his rather famous quote, "I know that after my death a pile of rubbish will be heaped on my grave, but the winds of history will sooner or later sweep it away without mercy."
And indeed as soon as he died there was a widespread movement of 'De-Stalinization.' For some more fun context - this is also the era that Gorbachev grew up in which is probably what planted the seed in him for disdain of the Soviet System that he would eventually play a key role in collapsing.
It is well known that Stalin enjoyed widespread popularity in the Soviet Union, even during the Purge years. But fine, substitute Putin if you wish. Russia is a country riddled with crime and corruption, completely undemocratic, with journalists and political rivals getting murdered left and right, and mired in a cataclysmic war with a once-friendly neighbor. Yet Putin polls extremely well.
Entrenched authoritarianism does not tolerate dissent. This should not come as a surprise. And I don’t have my citations on hand, but I’ve read a number of articles where Salvadorans express the same sentiment: ratings are inflated because people are scared to speak out.
I’m sure this is more than acceptable to some of those not currently in the government’s crosshairs. Unfortunately, there is no off-ramp for this flavor of authoritarianism. Bukele will remain dictator and El Salvador will no longer be a democracy.
The poll I referenced on perceptions of criminality was from Gallup. Approval ratings are typically carried out by groups like Cid-Gallup, which is based in Costa Rica. In other words - foreign organizations. And you can also see countless videos on YouTube of people, including Americans, treking the streets of El Salvador and talking to random people about the changes that have happened. Nobody's holding back anything. People love it. This is real. You're obviously going to be able to find stories against it online because it directly contradicts the globalist and Progressive ideology on how to handle criminality. And there are countless groups backing those sort of ideologies with vast sums of money fueling them.
The effects in El Salvador have been so dramatic that you can immediately reject most tales that try to undermine it on a macro level. For instance if it were true that they were only capturing small fries while letting the big fish run unchecked, you wouldn't see this dramatic decline in criminality. The gangs are being completely dismantled. If the gang leaders are or were working as collaborators then that's great! Make people even less motivated to even think about joining gangs when the leaders themselves might be snitches.
I could go into detail about why Putin is popular, but it requires treking back to the 'wild nineties'. I'd love to discuss that if you're interested, but I think it's somewhat tangential to what we're talking about.
Anecdote: brother’s brother-in-law is Filipino, seemed more than happy with Duterte's crack-down on drugs (he attributed to weed the kind of mental breakdown the USA would expect from meth). Duterte's approval rating while in office was +45 to +81, so I think that support was representative and not merely a fluke.
Duterte was arrested this year by order of the International Criminal Court.
I want to add something here about Duterte's current poll ratings, after his arrest, but I have no idea which news sources are actually reliable. The first few "sources" I tried looking at had both AI-generated adverts (the "look at this gentle bear climbing on beds in the maternity ward!" kind) between each paragraph, and pre-AI slop (kawaii IQ tests) on the sidebar, so I don't trust them.
And indeed as soon as he died there was a widespread movement of 'De-Stalinization.' For some more fun context - this is also the era that Gorbachev grew up in which is probably what planted the seed in him for disdain of the Soviet System that he would eventually play a key role in collapsing.