Bukele, President of El Salvador, proclaimed himself dictator

For him, In recent days, the label was a trend in social networks #BukeleDictator with which thousands of users have posted comments in which they criticize the authoritarianism of which made history in this Central American country by overthrowing for the first time the two parties that had alternated in power since the end of the civil war in 1992: the Republican Nationalist Right Alliance (ARENA) and the left heir to the ex-guerrilla Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN).

However, after sweeping the presidential elections from 2019, Bukele still did not control the legislative power, who stopped his great project of Territorial Control Plan with which he intends kill gangs and double the number of soldiers. In February 2020, the president burst into the Legislature with heavily armed soldiers put pressure on lawmakers to approve a $ 109 million loan to upgrade police and military weapons.

It was his first major show of force against the opposition, which he marginalized in this year’s parliamentary elections. His party, New Ideas, swept the elections, which on May 1 allowed him to dismiss all judges in the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court. of Justice and to the attorney general who was investigating members of his government.

El Faro digital newspaper reveals that three senior officials of Bukele’s executive, including the Minister of Social Development, María Chichilco, and the director of penitentiary centers, Osiris Luna, are said to be Iinvolved in the sale of 42,000 bags of food which were intended for people affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

While, the new magistrates of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice appointed by hand by his own party in the Legislative Assembly they opened the door for Bukele to stand for re-election in 2024, something that prohibits the constitution of the Savior. Not happy with that, the president signed in the last days judicial reforms to retire a third of the 690 judges and dozens of prosecutors who are already over 60 years of age or have accumulated more than 30 years of service. As if that weren’t enough, Salvadoran president blocked any advance in social rights by vetoing abortion, same-sex marriage and euthanasia in constitutional reforms which must be approved by the Legislative Assembly which is under its control.

In August of last year he even said that “if he was really a dictator, he would have shot all” the magistrates of the Constitutional Chamber who were subsequently dismissed by the Legislative Assembly as soon as their party obtained a majority. “Save 1000 lives for five, but I’m not a dictator”, was installed on this occasion by referring to the resolutions of the magistrates of the time who had limited, by their sentences, the measures of Bukele aimed at restricting freedoms during the management of the pandemic. Now he has changed his speech and proclaimed himself “dictator of El Salvador” a few days later accuse diplomats from the international community of funding the protest thousands of people who took to the streets “to fight against a dictatorship that does not exist”.