Bukele rebates criticism of the approval of unlimited reelection in El Salvador

File photo shows El Salvador President Nayib Bukele during an event on November 20, 2023 Jose Cabezas/Reuters, the Salvadorenian President Nayib Bukele, rejected on Sunday (3) that the approval in El Salvador of presidential reelection indefinitely is the “end of democracy” by stating that criticism of the decision is motivated by the fact that it was taken by a “small and poor country”. In an accelerated process, the government, dominated by the government, approved on Thursday (31) a constitutional reform that allows unlimited reelection, expands its term from five to six years and eliminates the second electoral shift. In his first reaction to the wave of criticism of international human rights organizations, Bukele wrote on social network X that “90% of developed countries allow the indefinite reelection of his head of government, and no one is bothering.” “But when a small, poor country like El Salvador tries to do the same, it is suddenly the end of democracy,” the 44 -year -old, who came to power in 2019 and was reelected in 2024 with 85% of the votes, which allowed him to have an almost absolute control of all state powers. “Surely they will hurry to point out that ‘a parliamentary system is not the same as a presidential’, as if this technicism justifies the double standard. But we are honest, this is no more than a pretext,” he added. According to Bukele, if El Salvador declared himself a parliamentary monarchy “with exactly the same rules as the United Kingdom, Spain or Denmark,” the criticism would go on. “Because the problem is not the system, but the fact that a poor country dares to act like a sovereign country. It is assumed that you should not do what they do. It is assumed that you should do what they say. And if you expect you to stay in your place,” he added. Organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Washington office for Latin American affairs (Wola) considered the decision as a “deadly blow” to democracy and a “manipulation” of the Constitution to favor Bukele’s power ambitions. President Salvadoran, who claims not to care about being called “dictator”, has great popularity for his “war” against gangs, which began in 2022 and which reduced minimum historical levels violence in the Central American country. But human rights defense groups criticize their security policy because it is based on an exception regime that allows for large -scale detention without court order and restricts freedoms. The constitutional reform was approved after a wave of arrests against human rights and critics of the government, which forced dozens of humanitarian journalists and exile activists. Venezuelans arrested in El Salvador beg for freedom

Source link