On Tuesday, January 26, the Constitutional Court determined that one of its most recognized candidates, Walter Araujo Morales, will not be able to be registered as a candidate.
The Constitutional Court admitted part of a lawsuit by our Time candidate Bertha Maria DeLeon, in which she asks for Araujo’s candidacy to be annulled for lack of notorious morality. This, then, has an open record for alleged expressions of violence against women, as well as a record of aggression against women on social media.
In admitting this point, the Chamber issued as a precautionary measure the suspension of the candidacy and determined that Araujo cannot appear on the ballot.
Faced with this apparent political defeat, the President of the Republic made a series of controversial posts on his Twitter account.
SEE ALSO: We regret that Bukele’s response to the Constitutional Court “is weapons and strength,” says Portillo Quadra
The first was a photo without context or explanation of a platoon of soldiers. Less than a year after leading a Legislative Assembly takeover with heavily armed military and police officers, this photo shared by the president has caused concern and alarm, and several Twitter users condemned these responses from the president.
Then the president changed, as a mockery and parody, his name and his photo on Twitter to “Admiral General Aladeen.” This is the character from the film The Dictator, starring British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. In this one, it represents Aladeen, a bloodthirsty, misogynistic, violent and offensive dictator of a fictitious country of the Middle East.
SEE: Walter Araujo will not be able to be a candidate for deputy for NI
Aladeen is one more of Baron Cohen’s characters who, through satire and black humor, denounces authoritarian situations, serious human rights violations, misogyny, and the political violence of many states. In addition, it uses such characters as a way to criticize and condemn the corruption and undue collusion of some corporate power actors with political figures.
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In short, Baron Cohen uses these characters to question abuses of power and bullying. Situations that local and international observers have observed, questioned and condemned in El Salvador in the last year and a half.
Pataleta or threat?
Regarding the images of the military and the allusion to a bloodthirsty dictator of a film, the director for the Americas of Human Rights Watch, José Miguel Vivanco, has criticized this response of Bukele with armed soldiers and wondered if it was a veiled threat from the president.
“El Salvador: Supreme Court, @SalaCnalSV, suspends Walter Araujo’s candidacy for deputy of Bukele’s party for ‘alleged pattern of violent conduct against women’. What was Nayib Bukele’s response? Upload a photo with armed soldiers .Pataleta or threat? “, Asked Vivanco.
This response of the president has been ridiculed on social media by dozens of users who, despite his attempt to divert attention, remind him that Walter Araujo, who was also deputy and leader of ARENA and candidate for WIN , will not be able to look for to continue being candidate.