POSITION REGARDING EVENTS THAT OCCURRED IN EL SALVADOR ON FEBRUARY 9, 2020
- On Sunday February 9, 2020, El Salvador’s President, Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez, entered the Blue Room of the Legislative Assembly, accompanied by members of the Armed Forces. This was due to the call of the Council of Ministers, over which the President presides, for an extraordinary session designed to approve a loan of USD 109 million to finance the so-called Territorial Control Plan Phase III. This Plan consists of strengthening the equipment of public and military security apparatus in the country.
- This event is a clear demonstration of authoritarianism and militarization by El Salvador’s President, who is making use of his position to use repressive forces to impose his will on an independent body of government such as the Legislative Assembly. The presence of members of the military in the assembly hall is an act of intimidation and a manifest coaction of the will of Salvadoran representatives.
- The repressive apparatus of the State that has been used historically to repress the Salvadoran people by each government of turn are now used to impose legal decrees upon other government bodies. This behavior is common to military dictatorships imposed throughout our Abya Yala.
- El Salvador is currently suffering an authentic social war as a result of economic exclusion caused by the neoliberal model imposed since the end of the civil war. This must be addressed by overcoming the structural causes that caused the war and not through strengthening its apparatus of repression. Thus, the loan the President of the Republic is requesting will not solve anything about the current situation of insecurity the Salvadoran people suffer; by contrast, it will further promote persecution of and violence against the organized popular movement and the population in general.
- We condemn the warmongering intentions of the current Salvadoran President and the use of the Armed Forces to impose his will.
- The Salvadoran people, aware of the process of militarization underway, led by President Bukele, call on the popular organizations of Abya Yala to speak out and accompany this denouncement of the dictatorial actions of the current executive.
San Salvador, February 2020
Signed: Movimiento Nuevo Pais, Movimiento Victoriano Lorenzo, Colectivo Agrario Abya Yala, Festivales Solidarios, Artis Paz Artistas, SOA Watch, Somos Abya Yala, Radio Adesalambrar, and Servicio Internacional Cristiano de Solidaridad con los pueblos de América Latina (SICSAL).
SEE PHOTOS: The day that El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly was militarized
TAKE ACTION: Please join us and sign this letter by our compas at CISPES to let your Senators and Congressional Representatives know that you are concerned about the dictatorial actions in El Salvador.
