Salvador: Bukele formalized controversial judicial reform that sacks a third of the country’s magistrates

The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, signed and controversial reform that sacks judges in their sixties, including one that in 2020 asked the prosecution to determine whether the president committed a crime by blocking prosecution for a 1981 massacre, as it happened this Friday.

Reform of Legal career law was published in the September 14 edition of the Official Journal and This is the last step for me to go into effect and complete the impeachment of the judges.

Bukele defended the measure on September 15 during his speech for the bicentenary of Central America’s independence from Spain and He accused, without presenting any evidence, these judges of corrupt practices.

United States, through their charge d’affaires in El Salvador, Jean Manes, he condemned the decision of the Legislative Assembly and warned that the country faces a “decline of democracy” which “damages bilateral relations”.

The president on Wednesday criticized the international community for allegedly “Fund” the opposition and defend “corrupt judges”, “terrorists” and “people who vandalize”.

Members of the ruling party New ideas promoted the reform as a measure to purge the justice system and fight corruption, corn the text of the decree does not mention the alleged corrupt practices and only indicates that it is a question of “modernizing” the law.

In the same edition of the Official Journal a similar reform that puts an end to prosecutors over 60 years old.

In turn, Ruth López, lawyer for the humanitarian organization Cristosal, said on social networks that They will go to the inter-American human rights system.

“We are ready to file a complaint against the State of El Salvador” before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) “for violating the rights of officials and citizens“, Public.

On September 8, David Morales, victim attorney and Cristosal member, announced that Two humanitarian organizations will inform the Inter-American Court of the reform to contradict the sentence the country received in 2012. These are the entities Tutela Legal “María Julia Hernández” and the Center for Justice and International Law (Cejil).

One of the judges who will be dismissed is Jorge Guzman, who decided in November 2020 to certify the Public Prosecutor’s Office so that investigate and determine whether President Bukele committed a crime after blocking judicial inspections of recordings of the army, in which it was planned to locate information about the military operation that led to the massacre of El Mozote in 1981.

The judge ordered the reopening of the case of the said massacre in September 2016 after the annulment of the amnesty law. In addition, he noted the charges facing more than a dozen soldiers withdrew for crimes against humanity.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Diego garcia–Sayan, recently called on the international community to take action against the “Dismantling of justice” in El Salvador by President Bukele and the Legislative Assembly.

(With information from EFE)

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