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News > El Salvador

Salvadorans Protest the Ruling Permitting Bukele's Reelection

  • Hundreds of young people protest against a ruling that allows for president Bukele's reelection.

    Hundreds of young people protest against a ruling that allows for president Bukele's reelection. | Photo: Twitter/@LaGaceta503

Published 6 September 2021
Opinion

Among the demonstrators were the Coordinadora Salvadoreña de Movimientos Populares and the Antifascist Youth.

After learning of the resolution of the Supreme Court of El Salvador allowing immediate presidential reelection, citizens took to the streets on Sunday, September 5, in front of the Monument to the Constitution in San Salvador to reject the measure.

If the regulation is applied, the current president, Nayib Bukele, could be reelected and remain at the head of the country's administration; before this, the demonstrators went with banners and slogans to demand the re-establishment of the constitutional order.

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El Salvador: Top Court Opens the Way for Bukele’s Reelection

Hundreds of young people have accused Bukele and the Supreme Court judges of authoritarianism because the judges were elected by the New Ideas party, to which Bukele belongs, after the dismissal of all the magistrates last May by the Legislative Assembly.

International organizations have denounced that the country "is on the brink of the abyss" and that its government dismantles institutions to violate human rights.

Likewise, they have condemned the sentence of the U.S. State Department, whose spokesman, Ned Price, indicated in a statement that the ruling undermines democracy, since "the Salvadoran Constitution clearly prohibits presidential incumbents from being reelected for a consecutive term."

The spokesman stressed that the measure corroborates the concerns raised by the May 1 decision of the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly to remove the sitting judges of the Constitutional Chamber and impose replacements loyal to the head of state.

At the same time, he rejected another of the legislative measures that oblige judges to retire at the age of 60 or when they complete 30 years of service through the reform of the Judicial Career Law. This measure aims to "empower the Bukele Administration to fill the judiciary with its own judges" in a clear strategy "to undermine judicial independence and eliminate a critical counterweight."

"This decline in democratic governance damages the relationship that the United States strives to maintain with the Salvadoran government and further erodes El Salvador's international image as a democratic and reliable partner in the region," he said.

Price, therefore, announced that Washington is asking the Salvadoran president to "demonstrate his stated commitment to democratic governance, including the separation of powers and the rule of law."

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