José Miguel Vivanco warned that Nayib Bukele is dismantling democratic institutions in El Salvador faster than Hugo Chávez in Venezuela

José Miguel Vivanco warned on Monday that in his opinion, President Nayib Bukele is “dismantling” El Salvador’s democratic institutions like the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, “but at a much more alarming rate”.

In a post thread on his Twitter account, Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) director for the Americas compared the rulers and the times when they were successful in “controlling” various institutions.

“Chávez succeeded in controlling the Supreme Court of Justice in 2004 (5 years after taking the presidency)” and “Bukele succeeded in controlling the Supreme Court in 2021 (2 years after taking the presidency)”, he stressed.

Various sectors, including the United States government, indicate that the Constitutional Chamber judges appointed on May 1 are “loyal” to the Bukele executive.

On this date, the Legislative Assembly, with a large pro-government majority, dismissed the constitutional judges with whom President Bukele had clashed on several occasions, a measure criticized by the international community.

Among the five judges appointed are a former government adviser Bukele and a lawyer to the director of the National Civil Police (PNC).

Vivanco added that “Chávez managed to bypass the limits of the presidential re-election in 2009 (10 years after having acceded to the presidency)”, while “Bukele, in 2021 (2 years after having acceded to the presidency)”.

The Constitutional Chamber overturned a rendition of the 2014 Magna Carta on Friday which prohibited presidential re-election for 10 years after leaving office.

This paves the way for Bukele to run for re-election in 2024., since with the previous criterion it was necessary to wait until 2034.

“Next? If we let ourselves be guided by the history of Venezuela: censorship of the press, restrictions imposed on civil society, total impunity for human rights violations, arrests of opponents, electoral fraud”Vivanco pointed out. And he added:Will the international community wait and see if Bukele follows the trend?

HRW’s Americas director warned on September 4 that “Democracy in El Salvador is on the brink”, while the US charge d’affaires in El Salvador, Jean Manes, stressed that there is a democratic “decline” in the country.

“This decline in democracy undermines the bilateral relationship between the United States and El Salvador, a relationship that we have had for decades and that we wish to maintain,” he said on Saturday.

For its part, U.S. asked Bukele on Sunday to demonstrate commitment to democratic governance and he ratified his condemnation of the decision of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of that country which allows immediate presidential re-election.

State Department spokesperson, Ned Prize, said in a statement that the decision “undermines” democracy and said the Salvadoran constitution “clearly prohibits presidential holders from re-election for a consecutive period.”

“United States calls on President Bukele to demonstrate clear commitment to democratic governance, including separation of powers and rule of law“Price added.

“This decline in democratic governance undermines the relationship that the United States strives to maintain with the government of El Salvador,” the note said.

In addition, he considered that the decision “further erodes the international image” of this country “as a democratic and reliable partner in the region”.

Hundreds of Salvadorans, mainly young people, demonstrated this Sunday in the capital of El Salvador against the decision of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court which allows the presidential re-election and which opens the possibility for President Bukele to run for a second term in 2024.

“We express our absolute rejection of the recent arbitrary and authoritarian acts of the Nayib Bukele regime,” protesters from humanitarian and feminist organizations at the Monument to the Constitution said when reading a statement.

They added that in their view the government and the ruling New Ideas party “They have taken a series of actions that threaten democracy and dissent in order to consolidate absolute executive power.”

“This is a cascade of events that seek to collapse what little we know about democracy,” they stressed and also criticized the recent decision by Congress to dismiss judges and prosecutors in their sixties.

The protesters, who numbered around 300, carried banners with messages of rejection from the government and against measures such as the implementation of bitcoin as legal tender.

With information from the EFE

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