El Salvador’s "Cool Dictator" Bukele Begins Controversial 2nd Term with Backing from Biden & Trump

this news is funded by viewers like you please support our work at democracynow.org this is democracy Now democracynow.org The War and Peace report I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez we turn now to El Salvador where president na bukel has been sworn in for a second term the move has been widely denounced as illegitimate and a violation of elor's Constitution which limits presidents to just one five-year term and prohibits consecutive election in 2021 El Salvador's constitutional Court ruled in favor of Bell's re-election bid after his allies in the Salvadoran National Assembly illegally removed all five magistrates from the court replacing them with muel supporters the self-proclaimed world's coolest dictator spoke Saturday from the capital S Salvador five years ago in this same Plaza I you to trust in us and the decisions we are going to take even if some of them seem like bitter medicine the people of El Salvador took the decision to follow the prescription and together we have rid ourselves of the gang cancer president Bull's inauguration comes as his government continues to enforce a state of exception El Salvador so-called war on gangs that's led to the Detention of nearly 80,000 people since 2022 many without charge or access to due process human rights groups have warned of gross violations and torturous conditions inside overcrowded Salvadoran prisons and estimate at least 240 people have died in police custody despite growing concerns for buell's authoritarianism the Biden Administration sent a highlevel delegation led by Homeland Security secretary Alejandra mayorcas to the inauguration just three years ago Biden officials had refused to meet with bukel and DC amidst concerns of his anti-democratic rule also in attendance at Saturday's Inauguration in San Salvador was Argentina's right-wing president Javier mle Donald Trump Jr and several Trump allies including Florida Congress member Matt Gates former Fox News host Tucker Carlson protesters gathered outside the Salvadoran Embassy in Washington DC to call out the Biden administration's recognition of what they called an illegal and unconstitutional second term for bukele we know that your government knows of the kidnapping and deaths of our children and families in bu's jails President Biden it shames us that your government decided to participate in the inauguration of a new dictator in El Salvador for more we go to S Salvador where we're joined by Roman graier a French American journalist reporter with alaro English covering Central American politics his latest piece for Alf English has headlined Biden and Trump camps jockey for favor in Buel LA's new El Salvador Al's editorial board also recently published an oped titled a dictatorship is born so Roman greier welcome back to democracy Now explain the significance of this inauguration the second term of buelli who describes himself as the coolest dictator hi Amy hi Juan it's great to be back with you well as you as you noted in in the introduction to this segment this is essentially the Evolution or the the Fulfillment of a process that's been developing at least since 2021 when the Constitutional um chamber and the Attorney General were removed in the first day of the of the last legislature when bu's party had a had had achieved a super majority in the elections so they removed the the Constitutional court or chamber which then dramatically reversed course just three four months later I believe in September of that year um ruling despite six articles of the Constitution that bu could seek reelection so that was that was essentially the first the first stepping stone and the following year he declared that he would indeed run for re-election and last late last October just minutes before the enrollment um deadline as a candidate he did indeed register as a candidate for reelection without resistance from the Supreme electoral tribunal or other institutions and on February 3rd he he was reelected with over 80% of uh of the of public support and he was just sworn in on Saturday and Roman if you could explain to our viewers and listeners why buelli has such uh such uh deep support among so many Salvadorans well I think it has to do with a number of factors first and foremost um being the state of exception which while it has been very repressive as you would also identified in introduction does hold the strongest support among the uh in in the electorate and in polling um we saw throughout the election that the government in fact did not hold very much did not do very much campaigning at all the president did not do very much campaigning at all it was more of a and there weren't futur looking proposals such as we want to do this or that it was more a victory lab stressing the reduction of gang presence the dramatic production of gang presence in communities across the country and there were even ads being run prior to the election suggesting that if the opposition vote were to return to power then there would be a dramatic unleashing of gangs from the prisons and this would this this could only be avoided if the president's majority in in the in the legislature were to continue and could you talk about the buelli government's Crackdown on journalists and human rights Defenders you yourself were among a group of journalists who were surveilled uh by the belly government with the with the Pegasus spwar that's right um at the time in in late 2022 when we announced the Pegasus surveillance extensive Pegasus surveillance of Al there was there were also multiple other newsrooms who were touched by that as well as human rights organizations columnists it was it was very extensive and I I would suspect that if more people were to subject their their phones to the same test that we ran we would have an even broader picture of what that surveillance truly looked like but the the digital surveillance certainly has been strong the context of digital of in inperson and digital intimidation has also been U very has been ever present just a few days before two days before inauguration if I'm not mistaken the uh government announced arrests against nine historic fmln leaders accusing them of uh plotting to plant bombs throughout the capital and the audio that the police posted online didn't speak of that in those terms it spoke of a product that could not fail Etc and one leate organization that knows the defendants asserted that this that they were speaking of firecrackers that are often used at protests so the broader context the or the undertones of inauguration have been very tense hostile at times and at inauguration itself there were snipers on the rooftop on the RO on rooftops close to uh the event military checking people who were coming in and out so the whole context definitely had militaristic undertones to it Roman as we begin to wrap up you've got bu Kell um detaining over 880,000 people since 2022 many without charge in a so-called war on gangs you have the Biden Administration just three years ago officials refusing to meet with president buchelli and DC uh given the human rights abuses or his tendency toward authoritarianism now you have a highlevel delegation led by mayorcas being present at the inauguration and you have uh the right wing there you have uh Florida uh congressman Matt Gates you have Tucker Carlson the former Fox News host and you have Donald Trump Junior clearly representing Donald Trump why what are their interest yeah it was it was interesting it was interesting to see these what appeared to be parallel us delegations at inauguration on Saturday on one hand you have the Biden Administration who after the initial ruling uh by the the by the Constitutional Court actually even before that um after the removal of the last Constitutional Court in may 20121 they were extremely critical as were most of uh the countries in in the hemisphere or many of the countries in the hemisphere and that PO that posture gradually changed so by the next year um actually even adding adding one more adding one more step to the picture when when interim US ambassador Jean Mains left the country in around November 2021 the US by that time had compared bu's ambition to seek re-election to UL Chavez and she left the country saying that she didn't she believed she didn't have a partner in the country at that time so the critic the criticism was very was very broad but by the following year what the what Juan Gonzalez and the other Juan Gonzalez the former National Security adviser to Joe Biden told El English was that in in a in a public setting was that um sorry my my computer just turned off on me you're fine okay well then I'll just keep talking so what what Juan Gonzalez essentially said in in a public forum the following year was that um you know there are different interpretations and of the Constitution and we'll let we'll let the people decide and and at that point things were more ambiguous and and by this year the Administration has settled into a posture of steering clear of the the question of of unconstitutional re-election and focusing on on efforts to draw closer to the to the buele administration I think part of that has to do with the fact that when the current US ambassador was was faced his Senate hearing um Florida Senator Marco Rubio stressed that we don't and I I believe this is a direct quote he said we don't have to applaud everything that they're doing but there is a national security um interest that should also be balanced so I believe that what is a foot on on the on the side of the Biden Administration and as for the Trump orbit there his buele was very close to the Trump Administration and to the US ambassador Ronald Johnson who was there there was an extensive cooperation on migration the efforts to u to stop migration to the US at Mexico border and in recent months you could say in the past year as things have been particularly delicate with the Biden Administration and there was a lot of uncertainty as to the the tenor of the relationship bu was very openly courting the US far right he was meeting with Tucker Carlson on his show taking other steps and it was very it was very evident that there was a mutual affinity and and basically the visit by Donald Trump Jr confirmed it was the most public sign of what had been understood for some time which is that bu does in fact uh bet on and and support the the return candidacy of Donald Trump in November finally Matt Gates has described M Kelly as an inspiration to the Western World the man who describes himself as the cool world's coolest dictator Roman grei I want to thank you for being with us reporter with alato English covering Central American politics joining us from s Salvador democracy Now is funded by viewers like you please give today at democracynow.org

Channel: Democracy Now!

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Id: cedLxUeQ-W8

Length: 12min 26sec (746 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 04 2024