This Sunday’s presidential elections in El Salvador marked several historic milestones. Not just because President Nayib Bukele was allowed to run for re-election despite the constitution prohibiting this – even though Congress and the courts have agreed to this – but because one of the five opposition candidates voted from abroad: Luis ParadaFlag bearer of the Nuestro Tiempo (NT) party. paid online This took advantage of the fact that the corresponding platform was created for the first time in the electoral history of the Central American country. The matter sparked criticism because the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) found that direct observation was not necessary as the Spanish company Indra, contracted for this part of the process, would not jeopardize its credibility under any circumstances.
The Washington Office of Latin American Affairs (WOLA) expressed deep concern in this regard, pointing out that voters in the United States – where most of the country’s expatriates are concentrated – They will vote without clear rules, without electoral control and without direct observation.
Carolina JimenezPresident of WOLA, strongly emphasized how El Salvador created a framework for irregularities “that calls into question the legitimacy of the result.” reducing the number of seats and mayoral positions And the change in the counting system Just a few months before the election. “This is called gerrymandering in English.”
Jiménez said that although Bukele wins overwhelmingly, “democracy does not depend exclusively on the votes or support of a political leader.” It is a system of rules, norms, institutionsThe analyst told independent media El Faro that while all polls show Salvadorans fully agree with the arrest of gang members, “if you break down the data and ask if they agree with the arbitrary arrest of a person, say no.” . Ultimately, we are talking about a citizenry who, if they had more information, would probably be against some of the government’s practices.”
This outlet, one of the outlets most attacked by Bukele, published just a week ago that the government of El Salvador was conspiring with coyotes and a fugitive gang leader to recapture them in 2023 Elmer Canales Rivera, aka Crooka national leader of the Mara Salvatrucha-13 Secretly released by the Salvadoran government in November 2021 as part of Bukele’s agreements with the country’s three largest gangs.
In any case, this Sunday, February 4, began with the certainty that Bukele would easily win and retain his re-election parliamentary supermajority. The electoral steamroller also foresaw the near disappearance of the once major parties FMLN and ARENA, each of which failed to get above 5% in polls. One of these studies, published by the Observa El Salvador 2024 consortium, predicted that Nuevas Ideas would win 57 of the 60 seats.
Nayib Bukele, who only appeared in the election campaign last December, He called on Salvadorans not to give the opposition a single representative advance its national security transformation. What his critics have warned about is the president’s path the creation of a one-party system.
The decline in the number of violent crimes is the main achievement of the president, who even said that El Salvador was on the way to existence one of the safest countries on the continent. He did it an exceptional regime who suspended personal guarantees, carried out large-scale mass arrests, and built huge maximum-security prisons to incarcerate “terrorists.”
But while the government has declared all crime statistics confidential, independent organizations such as Socorro Jurídico warn that the “Bukele model” is impacting thousands of innocent people. Last August, The executive recognized that 6,000 prisoners had been detained and had already been released. but another 14,000 were reported missing.
The NGO Cristosal has stated that El Salvador has become the country with the highest per capita rate of people deprived of their freedom in the world, with 2,144 per 100,000 inhabitants Some prisoners were arrested simply for getting tattoos..
Criticism of Bukele is not limited to prison. During this presidential campaign, he was also accused of basing his campaign on hunger. Public employees and even “confidence prisoners” participated in events that distributed boxes of food, toilet paper and other basic basket items in inland areas. Some of the products given away were: Rice and fertilizer donated by China.