El Salvador Perspectives

Two days after legislators in El Salvador abruptly removed from office all five magistrates of the Constitutional Chamber and the country’s attorney general and replaced them with others, a mountain of criticism has grown inside and outside of El Salvador.  Despite those criticisms, president Nayib Bukele has no plans to reverse course, and there appears to be little reason to believe that those removed from their posts could ever be returned.  As of today, three of the five magistrates and Attorney General Raul Melara had all tendered letters of resignation .    The letters are all eerily similar – they each proclaim that the author has always fulfilled the obligations of their office and declare that the actions to terminate them were unconstitutional and improper.    Then the letters go on to say, "but for personal and family reasons I am tendering my irrevocable resignation." A collection of lower court judges throughout El Salvador’s judicia...

On their first day in the Legislative Assembly, the new majority in El Salvador's Legislative Assembly from the Nuevas Ideas party of president Nayib Bukele voted to fire all five magistrates of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Judicial Court, to immediately elect new magistrates from a pre-determined list without debate or discussion, and to remove the country's Attorney General Raul Melara.  In taking these steps, Nayib Bukele's party has sought to remove all possible checks and balances on the powers of the president. Normally, the first day of a new Legislative Assembly is a day of pomp and circumstance and photo-taking as new members of the Legislative Assembly are sworn in.  Last night, however, the new Assembly took actions which many in El Salvador are describing as an " autogolpe " or "self-coup" and as an attack on the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary. In the new Assembly which commenced on May 1, deputies fro...

El Salvador is now facing a decision which every country afflicted with the coronavirus pandemic must make.   How long should stringent measures locking down the economy and restricting human mobility last and how should the economy be safely restarted?   There is no universal game plan or solution to this.   What worked in China or New Zealand may not work or may not be possible in Texas or Latin America or Africa.  The current progress of the COVID-19 disease in El Salvador strongly suggests that the present moment is not the time to let up on quarantine measures.   On Thursday May 14, the government had its highest single day death toll as it reported three deaths from COVID-19 bringing the national total to 23.   Confirmed cases of COVID-19 increased by 98, the second highest single day toll.  The government went from reporting 21 people hospitalized to 127 persons hospitalized in only 5 days. Here is my tracking cha...

By Salvador Samayoa [Adapted from a column published in El Diario de Hoy on April 12,  2020, published here with permission]. The Legislative Assembly recently passed a decree which temporarily restricts human rights. The deputies of the FMLN party, who did not vote in favor of it, and the deputies who voted to make changes in it, wanted to insure that people who were detained for being on the roads would be taken to their homes, and not to police stations or quarantine centers. This was a laudable purpose, and in tune with the decision of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court. But what we have seen since its approval on March 14 is that the president has challenged and contradicted the letter and spirit of this decree, and has completely ignored the authority of the judiciary.  Since he has shown that he is unwilling to govern within limits, and with checks and balances, we should not extend the extraordinary powers that were given to him in the two decrees. ...

In the tidal wave of news related to the novel coronavirus and its impact on El Salvador and the rest of the world, an important story managed to pass largely unnoticed.  On March 11, journalists Efren Lemus, Óscar Martínez and Carlos Martínez published in El Faro  La historia detrás del día en que Bukele se tomó la Asamblea Legislativa  -- The story behind the day Bukele took over the Legislative Assembly . My translation of El Faro's introduction to the piece: The entrance of President Bukele into the Legislative Assembly was not due to any public security loan. It had its origin in the water and algae crisis, in the image problem that this crisis generated for the Government. El Faro reconstructs what happened around the seizure of the congress: three days before, [the office of the president] ordered by chat message the Cabinet to cancel trips and attend the February 9th demonstration; the [personal bodyguards] of the deputies were summoned on Friday with a p...

In the current confrontation between the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, and the country's Legislative Assembly, I have shared much of the criticism directed at the president.  That criticism involves his unilateral decision to convene the congress and his subsequent entrance into the chambers of the Legislative Assembly accompanied by troops in full tactical gear and sharpshooters on rooftops.   But the critiques of these actions, which reveal an authoritarian streak in Bukele, do not mean the Legislative Assembly gets a free pass.  In fact, that branch of government has a record of not addressing pressing needs of El Salvador. There are 84 deputies in the Legislative Assembly who serve three year terms.  The two post-war dominant parties,  ARENA on the right and the FMLN on the left, hold 37 and 23 seats respectively.  Bukele ran for president on the ticket of the right wing GANA party in a marriage of convenience, and that party holds 1...

Today Nayib Bukele published an opinion piece in the Miami Herald pushing back against the critics of his use of the military in and around the chamber of the Legislative Assembly last weekend.  Bukele writes: My administration was deeply concerned about a popular uprising of frustrated Salvadorans mobilized against the National Assembly. This is why we asked the military to be present, should violence erupt as tens of thousands of Salvadorans gathered outside the National Assembly calling for the removal of its members.  Certain media interests falsely reported this as an attempt to take over that institution. But let me be clear: I respect the separation of powers. Anyone who suggests I was attempting to do such a thing is purposefully misrepresenting the truth.  Rather than focusing on my attempts to protect the Salvadoran people, the media should focus on why the National Assembly continues failing the people of El Salvador. The focus should be on those in the...

One day after president Nayib Bukele marched into the chambers of El Salvador's Legislative Assembly accompanied by heavily armed soldiers and police in flak jackets, his attempt to force the congress to do his bidding was dealt some major setbacks. On Monday, the Constitutional Chamber of El Salvador's Supreme Judicial Court agreed to take petitions from citizens protesting Bukele's actions this past weekend.  The Chamber found constitutional flaws in Bukele's use of his Council of Ministers to demand a special session of the Legislative Assembly to vote on an international loan package for security funding and then to deploy the police and armed forces inside and outside of the chambers of the legislature (Salon Azul) to make his point.   In accepting the petitions, the Chamber ordered Bukele to cease using the Council of Ministers to convene the assembly in extraordinary session and to cease using the police and military for purposes not authorized by the Constit...

The streets of San Salvador, especially around the government center, were filled with soldiers and security forces on Sunday.   The reason?   It was not relief efforts for some natural disaster (although a 5.3 earthquake off the Pacific coast of El Salvador woke many residents at 2:30 in the morning).   It was not to fight a crime wave (president Nayib Bukele has celebrated that monthly homicide rates have hit post war lows).   It was not to combat an insurrection.   (The only insurrection was the one which the commander and chief of the armed forces, Bukele, had called on his followers to prepare for). Instead, the reason was high stakes political theater.   The purpose of the show was to demonstrate who was in charge in El Salvador, and that person is president Nayib Bukele.   The deployment of troops and police had no other purpose.  Bukele was using the country's armed forces and the country's police for...

Salvadorans wake up Sunday morning to a country in the midst of a constitutional crisis.   President Nayib Bukele provoked the crisis Thursday when his Council of Ministers ordered the Legislative Assembly to come into extraordinary session Sunday, February 9, to vote on approving a $109 million international loan to "modernize" security forces.  The Assembly refuses to bow to Bukele dictating when they should meet. Bukele has been aggressively pressuring the political parties in the assembly. Bukele has called on his supporters to converge on the Legislative Assembly Sunday afternoon to see to it that the deputies do their jobs.  Bukele ominously tweeted: To the International Community. El Salvador is dominated by two bands from the civil war, these two bands continue with corruption and negotiate with criminal groups.  There are videos of them negotiating lives in exchange for votes.  The people are already tired of it and the President is wi...

The Constitutional Chamber of El Salvador's Supreme Court today challenged the power of the National Assembly yet again.   The Constitutional Chamber today  ruled that the president of the Supreme Court, Salomón Padilla, was improperly elected to the Court because of his party ties to the FMLN.  Padilla has never denied having those ties. Initial reaction to the decision followed partisan lines in the country.   Representatives of the FMLN and GANA decried the decision as exceeding the power of the Court.   Representatives of ARENA and the PCN applauded the decision as supporting judicial independence. There was no immediate reaction from Salomón Padilla.   Nor did President Funes or the candidates for his job make a comment today.   The possibility exists that we might have a repeat of last year when members of the Supreme Court refused to acknowledge a Constitutional Chamber ruling that they had been improperly elected.

There is currently an unseemly dispute going on between two divisions of El Salvador's Supreme Court.   It is a dispute which undermines respect for the Court as an institution and for principles of judicial independence and the rule of law. The Constitutional Chamber of the Court has agreed to hear a petition challenging the election of the chief of the Supreme Court, Salomón Padilla, who was elected when last year's constitutional crisis was resolved .  The Constitutional Chamber has been the activist part of the court, and has been a particular thorn in the side of the political parties by requiring that elections allow voters to vote for individuals rather than parties, by requiring that independent candidates be permitted, by finding that the minister of public security cannot be an ex-general and more. Meanwhile the Administrative Litigation Chamber ("Sala de lo Contencioso-Administrativo") has agreed to rule on a petition challenging the manner in which th...