Salvador: international condemnation of the Supreme Court’s decision to allow the re-election of Nayib Bukele

The Director for the Americas of Amnesty International (TO THE), Erika Guevara-Rosas, said on Saturday that they are watching El Salvador for “report non-compliant practices“Human rights and warned against dismantling of institutions.

“Around the world, we face authoritarian governments dismantling institutions to violate human rights. El Salvador is proven to be no exceptionGuevara-Rosas posted on Twitter.

He added that at Amnesty International “we have eyes in El Salvador to denounce the violation of the human rights practices of the government of Nayib Bukele”.

This publication comes hours after the magistrates of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, appointed on May 1 by a majority in Congress, overturned a 2014 decision and allow an immediate presidential re-election.

In the judgment, the magistrates order the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) to authorize “a person who exercises the presidency of the Republic and who has not been president during the immediately preceding period to participate for the second time in the electoral ballot ”.

This paves the way for Bukele to be re-elected in 2024. With the interpretation given in 2014 to number 1 of article 152 of the Constitution, it was not until 2034.

The judges ruled that the 2014 interpretation is “wrong“And they stressed that in their opinion, the Constitution allows a citizen to be president for a maximum period of 10 years.

Another of those who reacted was José Miguel Vivanco, Director for the Americas of Human Rights Watch. “El Salvador’s Constitutional Chamber – which Bukele captured in May this year – just allowed Bukele to stand for re-election. The same script used by Daniel Ortega and Juan Orlando Hernández“, He expressed on Twitter.

And I add: “Democracy in El Salvador is on the brink”.

Meanwhile, the former Bolivian president Jorge Tuto Quiroga declared: “Infamous legal maneuver in El Salvador to allow presidential re-election. Bukele follows in the footsteps of Ortega in Nicaragua, Juan Orlando Hernández in Honduras and Evo Morales in Bolivia ”.

“Its servile judges declare the Constitution unconstitutional, a macabre oxymoron that tyrants use to extend their power,” he added to his post on Twitter.

For its part, Tamara suju, lawyer specializing in human rights and executive director of the Casla Institute, asked: “What will happen to the Latino leaders who do everything to stay in power? The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice has given a new interpretation to the Constitution to allow immediate presidential re-election ”.

On May 1, the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador, with a large pro-government majority, dismissed the constitutional magistrates and appointed five lawyers to occupy the positions.

The international community criticized this action considering that it was a blow to the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary.

Among the appointed magistrates is a former adviser to the executive of Bukele, a lawyer for the current director of police and a former commissioner of the Institute for Access to Public Information, who was chosen by Bukele in a contested process.

The 40-year-old president wins the 2019 presidential elections in the first round and with a large advantage. Moreover, its popularity prompted the New Ideas party, led by one of its cousins, to win 56 of the 84 deputies in Congress.

Bukele did not comment on social media, but some of his officials and New Ideas MPs applauded the decision and encouraged his re-election.

The president declared on June 1, after his two years in government, that he would not allow the country to regress to the system which “has plunged us into crime, corruption, inequality and poverty” whereas “God gives strength”.

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