Analysis-Leader for life? El Salvador’s Bukele headed that way, critics say

By Emily Green

Critics, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’nin indefinitely trying to remain in power was not a warning sign.

During the first year of Bukele, he had suppressed the legislative council with armed soldiers. Or a year later, when the allies at the congress removed senior court judges and the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and changed them with loyalty.

Then last year, the bouquet, the new Supreme Court judges reinterpreted the constitution after reinterpreting the constitution as president ran for a row.

However, the last overthrow point in the afternoon of Thursday afternoon, a legislator of the Bukele’s new ruling new ideas party announced an offer to allow the re -election of the Constitution uncertain presidency.

Bukkele allies, the Parliament’s first analysis or public debate without going to the committee immediately to vote for the legislation to sign a petition to sign a petition.

From the moment the legislation was brought, only three hours have passed until it became a law. Fifty seven voted in favor of deputies and three opposed.

Ernesto Castro, the Speaker of the Assembly, frame the vote as a gain for democracy. “People will decide how long a leader wants to be on duty,” Castro wrote, “We provide a more powerful, fair and more efficient democracy with these decisive measures.”

Marcela Villatoro, one of the three legislators who voted against the measure, met late on Thursday: “Democracy died today in El Salvador.”

The Constitutional Change also extended the presidential period up to one year, eliminated the flows and raised the next presidential elections to two years to 2027, and left very little space for the scattered opposition to find a candidate.

Deepening pressure

The bouquet, which was sweeping to power in 2019, is extremely popular in El Salvador because of the powerful weapon tactics that once eliminated strong street gangs. This, when combined with the effective pressure on competitors, guarantees that the 44 -year -old child will be in office until at least 2033 and perhaps years later.

Human Rights groups accused Bukle of widespread abuse and corruption, and after the arrest and imprisonment of open oral critics, a rights have fled activists and journalists in recent months.

Bukele spokesman, whether to run for the election, whether the opposition’s claim that democracy has been destroyed, did not respond to requests for comments about the constitutional change.

In the United States, El Salvador’s constitutional amendment was largely silent. Buklele is the most powerful ally in Latin America, a relationship that was strengthened by an agreement reached in March to deport the 238 Venezuelalans in a maximum security prison from the United States. In April, Trump called Bukele “a President”.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not respond to the request for a comment on the constitutional change.

“The US government protects the bouquet regime with its silence,” the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of peaceful assembly and association freedom. He said. “Bukkele courts control the Congress, the media and the narrative. I don’t know what happened if this is not autocracy.”

The reaction of the measure on Thursday in El Salvador was silenced. Democracy ended a 12-year cruel civil war during the relatively new-1992 peace agreements in the country-and many salvadorans think that the gangs are unsuccessful considering the strength of their power during this time.

News was on the front pages of the country’s most popular articles. However, there were no protests, and many people focused on preparing for a week -long holiday with government offices next week.

Most of Bukle’s most obvious Critics fled the country, including 100 estimated journalists and human rights activists. In July, the country’s leading human rights group suspended operations.

Bertha Maria Deleon, a lawyer and activist working for the bouquet between 2015-2019, said that the rise of Bukele to power was fed by what he saw as a legitimate desire to develop El Salvador at that time. He promised that the three consecutive presidents would end corruption after being accused of embezzling millions of dollars of public funds.

Deleon was broken with bouquet after invading the parliament in 2020. He said there was an effort to reinforce the power of everything he has ever done since then.

“Since the inheritance of the parliament, he has clearly begun to carry out the guide of the dictators.”

(Reporting by Emily Green; Editing by Christian Plumb and Rosalba O’Brien)