Manuel Pérez Rocha L.*
President López Obrador has done well in calling for the electoral victory of Bernardo Arévalo in Guatemala to be respected ( The Conference, 12/12/23). But it has been a serious omission to not address the human rights crisis in El Salvador, under the exception regime
of President Nayib Bukele.
On December 8, the Public Ministry of Guatemala declared the general and presidential elections invalid, despite not being the qualified authority to certify or annul elections. The reaction of the international community was quick and forceful. AMLO joined the OAS (http://tinyurl.com/2brf229y), the European Union (http://tinyurl.com/mvcs6ydk), the United States government (http://tinyurl.com/r3w4pk6c), national and international organizations and others in calling on Guatemalan authorities to ensure that President-elect Arévalo takes office in January. The US government even placed visa restrictions on nearly 300 Guatemalan public officials and members of the private sector for undermining democracy and the rule of law in the country. Fortunately, on December 14, the Constitutional Court ordered that the transfer of power be guaranteed on January 14 for President Arévalo and all elected public officials.
In stark contrast to the international response to defend the democratic process in Guatemala, there is a strange silence regarding the erosion of democracy and human rights in the other neighboring country, El Salvador.
A report from an international delegation to El Salvador to be published in January details how President Bukele has taken a series of measures to reduce the independence of the Judiciary, violate basic human rights and suspend civil liberties and the rule of law. right in the name of protecting the public, from gangs.
Among the more than 70 thousand people imprisoned by the Bukele regime, in terrible conditions and under the use of torture, there are thousands of innocent people, including prominent environmentalists, such as the five water defenders of Santa Marta and numerous union leaders. There is also strong evidence that Bukele wishes to violate a unanimous vote in 2017 in the Salvadoran legislature to ban mining, which would endanger the country’s water supply and violate the popular will.
To make matters worse, the Constitutional Court ruled that from now on presidential re-election will be possible, which is, as in Mexico, prohibited by the Constitution. But Bukele is going to be reelected. Let’s imagine that AMLO sought the same thing and skipped the constitutional provisions that enshrine the effective suffrage, no re-election
. What would be the national and international reaction?
Despite calls from international organizations allied to Salvadoran organizations, the governments of the United States, Canada, the European Union and Mexico have turned a blind eye by not only stopping criticizing Bukele’s actions, but continuing to support his government. . For this reason and in view of the restart of negotiations between the Bukele government and the IMF for a new loan, a group of eight international organizations related to the fight against corruption, access to public information and respect for human rights, including the Institute for Policy Studies, we sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on December 11 (see letter https://tinyurl.com/mr3dy7js), requesting that you ask the United States representative at the IMF to condition the approval of the $1.3 billion loan on compliance with anti-corruption, transparency and human rights requirements (https://tinyurl.com/7f2svutf).
For its part, Mexico should take the lead in defending the Salvadoran Peace Accords signed in 1992 in Mexico City, as well as the National Reconciliation Law, which remain in force to this day ( The Conference1/3/23, https://tinyurl.com/pzd3aj2c). This agreement was negotiated under the auspices of the Secretary General of the United Nations and signed by representatives of the government of El Salvador and the FMLN insurgency and also sponsored by Spain, Colombia and Venezuela. But Bukele has declared them a farce. When AMLO visited El Salvador in May 2022, he recalled that Mexico proposed the creation of the Contadora Group, through which peace was achieved, and which is a source of pride for us Mexicans, because those agreements were signed at the Chapultepec Castle, in Mexico City.
.
Despite Bukele’s apparent success in pacifying the country from gangs, members of social and religious organizations from the United States and Canada who visited El Salvador in October informed us that they were surprised by the expressions of fear, suffering and corruption in the country, fear because the arrests are so arbitrary and sudden that many parents fear every night that their teenage children could be picked up, which has led to an increase in emigration to the United States, in particular by the young
. The Cristosal organization has counted 3,516 cases of human rights complaints committed by State agents in the context of the emergency regime. Of the victims, 57.6 percent are men and women between 18 and 30 years old (https://tinyurl.com/22p3rszp).
International support in the face of attempts to deny the electoral results in Guatemala has been essential and as president Bernardo Arévalo will continue to need it to be able to freely exercise his office. However, El Salvador must also be monitored, where Bukele dictatorially tramples on the tortuous process of transition from war to democracy in the country.
* Researcher at the Institute for Policy Studies and associate at the Transnational Institute
The Conference
