Today’s Diary briefly reviews the blows the country received for exogenous factors and government actions.
The year that just ended was particularly complicated for hundreds of thousands of people. On the one hand, the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed the lives of thousands of Salvadorans and severely affected many others who suffered the effects of the disease.
Likewise, containment and closure measures led to the closure of businesses and the loss of thousands of jobs, which has pushed many Salvadorans into vulnerability and the gates of poverty.
El Salvador reports nine more deaths from COVID-19, a total of 1,336
Another not inconsiderable point is how the citizens saw their “normality” disappear: due to the high transmissibility of the coronavirus, the Salvadorans had to live a long closure, some could not see their relatives and , in the worst case, they could not say goodbye to those who lost their lives to this disease or other causes.
In short, two days ago it closed one of the most complicated years in recent history. Unfortunately, not only these exogenous factors marked the difficulty of 2020.
Contamination of dialogue
Some countries in the world are moving forward thanks to their governments and others are sadly looking to move forward even as the authorities do and decide.
In 2020, El Salvador seemed to belong to the second group. In addition to the harsh health, economic and social situation, the government of Nayib Bukele helped complicate the national landscape.
US Congressmen. UU. They criticize Bukele for “moving away” from democracy
The first point, which might seem subtle but is very pernicious to the country, is the contamination of political dialogue.
Through the president’s personal networks, his propaganda apparatus, and the bullying of some of his officials and fans, a systematic attack on government opponents and critics was undertaken throughout the year.
While Nayib Bukele seems to have a broad base of conjunctural support, it is difficult to try to govern a country by turning its back, perhaps attacking, on those who have criticisms or doubts about government.
This became particularly serious at a time when the country had to make complicated decisions to deal with the pandemic. Far from dialogue with political forces and finding difficult solutions by consensus, the president has chosen to make unilateral decisions and attack those who, even those aided by law, oppose such measures.
In the medium and long term, the president is breaking social bridges and making political differences between Salvadorans one more factor of division and case hate speech. For a country with a chronic history of violence, it is extremely dangerous to understand the adversary as an enemy worthy of elimination.
Bukele v. Sala: “If I were a dictator, I would have shot them all. You save a thousand lives in exchange for five.”
In this sense, in 2020 he transformed the police and military into armed arms of the political intentions of the President of the Republic. These lent themselves to illegal and draconian measures in the pandemic, but also to harassing opponents, such as the fateful Feb. 9, in which the president commanded an armed take on the Legislature.
A country where the security forces respond to political whims and not to the law is on the verge of a massive political persecution, something typical of the worst authoritarianisms.
Beyond this constant division, the government also did not engage in dialogue with doctors and scientists to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Far from it, and as German headline Deutsche Welle masterfully headlined in March, Bukele faced the pandemic “with militarized improvisation.”
Containment centers remain at risk for detainees to become infected
A clear example was the management of containment centers, which seemed to move away from the health ideal and became prisons for those who allegedly violated quarantine, as well as being centers of infection and where many died .
El Salvador also lost the ability to monitor its public officials and how they use public funds, with a systematic scrutiny of transparency and accountability tools. Highlights in this section are the weakening of the Institute for Access to Public Information that in 8 years has allowed a country to emerge from the shadows of how the resources that all contribute are used.
Eventually, the government indebted the country without concrete execution plans of hundreds of millions of dollars and in opacity. Here, they also lose the children and grandchildren of Salvadorans who are seeing their country enter a deep economic and fiscal crisis.
Cases not to forget:
Contaminated political dialogue
The government of Nayib Bukele, through the messages of the president herself, her propaganda media and her officials and fans, has tried to delegitimize the idea of political opposition, a fundamental pillar of a democracy, and suggests that the opponents are enemies to eliminate. This hatred undermines discussions that require high-level agreements.
Improvisation in the pandemic
One thing the country missed in 2020 was the opportunity to address the pandemic by listening to doctors and technicians. Instead, the government was aided by poorly crafted executive decrees, militarized improvisation, and a president unable to acknowledge mistakes. These failures are presumed guilty of thousands of infections and many deaths.
Lack of transparency
While past administrations have been overshadowed by corruption and attempts to be held accountable, the current government has made significant efforts to keep out of the public eye the detail of how it has used hundreds of millions of dollars in the pandemic. It also weakened key institutions to monitor the use of state resources.
Denature the PNC and FF. AA.
Since the Peace Accords, El Salvador has traveled a route of trying to professionalize the security forces. However, the government of Nayib Bukele has treated these bodies as the armed arms of the political whims of the trustee and they have even disobeyed judicial and legislative orders, backed by orders and orders given to them by the president.
galloping indebtedness
It is natural that during a pandemic the government has to seek many more resources than in a usual period. It is positive that you have room for maneuver to request resources. What is not valid is to borrow in the country but to execute the funds without planning, with opacity and granting, in many cases, contracts to relatives, friends and even officials.
Meritocracy, a distant ideal
The government of Nayib Bukele has been filled with very expensive officials who do not meet the minimum requirements for their positions or who occupy positions created specifically for them, without having a greater utility. This not only raises the costs of the state, but leaves the most capable out of decision-making and rewards servility.