Salvador’s Parliament, overwhelmingly dominated by the supporters of President Nayib Bukele, adopted a constitutional reform that abolished on Thursday, July 31, abolishing the limit of the number of mandates of the Head of State and allowing this nearby ally of Donald Trump that is represented indefinitely.
This reform, examined according to an accelerated procedure, was adopted by the 57 Pro-Bukele deputies, the only three oppositions chosen voted. It also provides the abolition of the second vote and the elongation of the presidential mandate of five to six years.
The parliamentarians ratified the reform in the process, during a night session, while the fireworks were extracted from the center of the capital San Salvador.
The president can represent “without reservations”
According to the text, the current mandate of Nayib Bukele, extremely popular for the ruthless struggle that leads against gangs but criticized by human rights organizations, will end two years earlier than expected, in 2027 instead of 2029. The President may represent “without reservations.”
In power since 2019, Nayib Bukele had been selected in June 2024 with 85% of the votes after being authorized to run for a second mandate, which was in principle forbidden by the Constitution, by the Supreme Court dominated by judges near power.
“It is very simple, saving people. You can only decide until you support its president,” said Pro-Bukele Deputy Ana Figueroa, who presented this project on Wednesday that described as “historical.”
“Today, democracy died in Salvador (…) The masks fell,” deplored for his part in the plenary session, the opposition deputy Marcela Villatoro, who criticized the sudden deposit of this reform project against the deputies while the country begins a week of summer vacation. “These are cynical,” he said.
A ruthless war against gangs
Nayib Bukele, 44, owes his immense popularity in Salvador to his ruthless war against the “falls”, the gangs that terrified the population. Its particularly muscular measures have reduced violence in the country, once one of the most dangerous in the world, at a historically low level.
Under the state of exception in force for three years and that allows arrests without a mandate, around 87,000 people accused of belonging to “falls” were arrested. According to NGOs such as Chrysal and Legal Socorro, this figure includes thousands of innocent people, and around 430 people died in prison.
The Salvadoran president has also become a key partner of his American counterpart Donald Trump in his policy to combat illegal immigration. Therefore, he welcomed for several months in his mega prison for gang members, the terrorism confinement center (CECOC), 252 Venezuelans expelled expedited by the US administration and then could return to their country.
Constitutional reform occurs after a wave of repression against defenders of human rights and detractors of Nayib Bikele, who forced dozens of journalists and humanitarian activists to exile.
“Bukele’s party promotes an express constitutional reform to allow indefinite presidential re -election. They follow the same path as Venezuela. It begins with a leader who uses its popularity to concentrate power, and this ends with a dictatorship,” wrote Juanita Goebertus, director of Human Right Watch (HRW), in the social network XX
“At no time do we offer that only a president remains in office and that there is never any election in this country again. This is not true,” he defended himself for his deputy of the party in the Sweden Callejas power during the plenary session of Parliament.
“I don’t care that they are taxed as a dictator. I prefer to be treated as a dictator to see that savadourians are killed in the streets,” said Nayib Bukele in June on the first anniversary of his re -election.
Source: BFM TV
