Controlled by Nayib Bukele, Congress rejects Court and deepens authoritarian drift in El Salvador

CARACAS.- “And the Salvadoran people, through their representatives, said: Rejected!”. Another helping hand Nayib Bukele, President 2.0 of El Salvador, who celebrated his new bossy attack in style where he loves it most – on social media. Self-coup is the word most used inside and outside the Central American country to explain what happened in the first session of the new Legislative Assembly last night.

The pro-government deputies of the new parliament approved last night the dismissal of five magistrates and four deputies of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, one of the main obstacles for two years to the wishes of the president for more power. The five judges were dismissed by magistrates linked to the government majority on the pretext of having taken arbitrary decisions.

Only 30 minutes after the vote, the Constitutional Chamber issued a sentence declaring the dismissal illegal and defining it as “coercion” of the executive branch against the judiciary. Already in 2020, Bukele has repeatedly flouted the provisions of the Court against his excesses. “If he had been a dictator, he would have shot them all,” then threatened the president..

The dismissal of the magistrates did not come alone, since Raúl Melara, Attorney General of the Republic, also fell before the official attack. The chosen one, Rodolfo Delgado, was in charge of the prosecutor’s office for organized crime. The ruling party considers him close to the opposition. The police force took over the prosecutor’s office to facilitate relief during that morning and the incorporation of Delgado, who had the support of the police directors.

With a stroke of the pen, without being debated in committee, without the right to defense and with a favorable vote of 64 of the 84 deputies, the government bloc imposed the strength of the most powerful. The landslide victory in the recent parliamentary elections gave Bukele the majority he lacked in his first two years as head of the country.. The youngest presidential party on the continent, New ideas, 56 MPs in total, and also the strengthening of Gana, the National Concertation Party (PCN) and the Christian Democratic Party (PDC). To all this must be added the enthusiastic support of the majority of the country. Facing the ruling party, only the remnants of the former majority parties remain, the right-wing ARENA with 14 seats and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) with four.

In this way, Bukele took effective control of the powers that tried to contain his authoritarian delirium. “I am extremely satisfied with the first plenary session and the debut of the New Ideas bench. There is a lot to change in our country, but it is clear that they cannot do it all in one day. I know that the majority of the Salvadoran people are impatiently awaiting the second plenary session ”, threatened the president.

International rejection is unanimous. The Organization of American States (OAS) rejected both layoffs and he opted for the work undertaken by the Special Mission of the Colombian Santiago Cantón and by the International Commission against Impunity. “When the majorities eliminate the system of checks and balances in the institutional framework, they alter the essence of its functioning,” criticized the Pan-American organization in a statement.

Antony Blinken, Secretary of State for the new administration of Joe Biden, he came into personal contact with Bukele to express his “serious concerns” regarding the events of the last few hours. “Democratic governance requires respect for the separation of powers for the good of all Salvadorians”, summed up the US Chancellor, who also highlighted the fired prosecutor Melara for his fight against corruption and defined him as an “effective partner” in the fight against crime.

“This is an obvious change in the constitutional order”, Turning José Miguel Vivanco, director for the Americas at Human Rights Watch (HRW), who pointed out that the Salvadoran Assembly was swearing before the new “magistrates” despite the urgent decision which declared the “accelerated dismissal” unconstitutional.

Vivanco warned Bukele: “We will do everything to ensure that this assault on democracy affects its relations with the US government, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).”

Bukele preferred to respond brutally to Vivanco, who in a single week collected the vituperations of the Salvadoran president and Chavismo, enraged by the HRW investigation which demonstrated the executions and abuses of his forces on the border with Colombia. The Salvadoran leader accused the US director of HRW of being funded by George Soros, just as Chavista Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza pointed out to him that he was “funded by the United States”.