The director of the Human Rights Watch Division of the Americas argues that with the government in the US. UU. Joe Biden’s “the Salvadoran president’s party is going to end.”
José Miguel Vivanco, director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch, said President Nayib Bukele has “blatantly” taken advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to concentrate power, and at the same time to weaken the controls, the brakes and the weights contained in Salvadoran democracy to ensure a democratic exercise of power and to prevent and prevent human rights abuses.
“Bukele has ignored, laughed at the repeated rulings of the Supreme Court demanding respect for the country’s constitution, and has come like a ring on his finger the pandemic crisis to back down on controls democracies and public liberties in El Salvador, “says Vivanco.
He thinks that President Nayib Bukele “is going to end the party when Joe Biden’s administration begins,” on January 20, as during the Donald Trump administration, and with silence and in some cases applause. , of former U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador Ronald Johnson, the president felt he had a free letter to “keep doing and undoing.”
Read more: José Miguel Vivanco: President Bukele’s party is over when Joe Biden’s new government enters on January 20
The human rights defender points out that with the control of Democrats in the House and Senate it will be possible to put effective brakes on President Bukele, so that he does not continue to sweep with democratic institutions as he has been doing.
Vivanco made the remarks during the presentation of Human Rights Watch’s global human rights report, where he summarized the situation in the Latin American region.
With regard to the next elections in El Salvador, he said that he hoped that they would be conducted with transparency, freedom and credibility.
“We will continue to observe very closely the situation of the Savior because it is necessary to prevent the Savior from becoming a dictatorship. It is a democracy, I insist, which has a leader like Bukele, but which so far has shown great consistency in its democratic institutions in defense of the values that protect the political Constitution, ”says Vivanco.
He believes that in El Salvador, unlike Nicaragua, there is no dictatorship, despite the actions of President Bukele, “who is making extraordinary efforts to transform the country into his personal dictatorship.”
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“The Savior’s surprise is that despite being a young democracy, it has been shown that it has an independent judiciary, with judges of the supreme court who have had the courage and courage and integrity to defend the Constitution with all their might.” , says Vivanco.
He adds that there are also political parties, authorities such as the Prosecutor’s Office that could be stronger and more active, but that have significant degrees of autonomy.
“I would like (the Prosecutor’s Office) to be much more active in the defense, in the investigation of crimes of abuse committed by the state, not only in human rights but also in areas such as corruption,” said the human rights defender. .
He explains that in El Salvador there is a very strong society and a private sector that is active and defends the values of an open and democratic society.
“I think Mr. Bukele has had a hard time with the election of Biden. Biden knows Central America very well and is very well advised on the fragility of the democratic system and the need to strengthen democratic institutions. , especially in Central America and in particular in El Salvador, “Vivanco emphasizes.
Region with a lack of leadership in human rights
“Last year has been probably one of the worst years for human rights, I would venture to say in the last three decades, it has been a very hard year for the cause of human rights, for the first time we are in this region suffering what I think is appropriate to describe as the consolidation of three dictatorships, that of (Nicolás) Madur (in Venezuela), that of (Daniel) Ortega (in Nicaragua) and that of Cuba, “he said.
He added that 2020 has seen the consolidation of these three dictatorships, despite pressure at the international level and the allegations and documentation that exist about crimes committed in these countries.
Vivanco believes that there has been an absence of leadership in the region because of human rights, which is notorious in countries such as Brazil and Mexico that are led by populist leaders and demagogues, as in both cases there is contempt. deep for democratic values, for public liberties, for human rights and the rule of law.
He believes that this is due to the lack of Latin American voices capable of moving and defending the cause of human rights, where the lack of credibility of these governments does not help a picture of improving the state of human rights in regional level.
Added to this is the management of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, who with his despotic and populist behavior contributes to the climate of human rights unrest.
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He points out that the pandemic for COVID-19 has also aggravated a deep inequality and conditions where the pandemic has been controlled by untrained police forces, those who act with impunity and violence, and on many occasions they corrupt with the abuse of power.
In this context of the pandemic, freedom of information and freedom of the press have suffered great declines, says Vivanco, mainly by leading governments such as El Salvador, with the presidency of Nayib Bukele, where freedom of the press has been restricted. and access to information.
Vivanco presented the case of Mexico, where it is dangerous to practice the journalistic profession, as 23 journalists have died to investigate corruption or drug trafficking, where he says that no serious efforts are being made to end the phenomenon, and most cases are not investigated.
Regarding the role of the Organization of American States (OAS), Vivanco points out that the current executive secretary, Luis Almagro, has focused on the dictatorships of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, which need international attention due to which are consolidated, but it has been too selective when there are other nations that deserve permanent scrutiny, denunciation, and alert for setbacks on human rights issues and a good example of this is the case of Bukele in El Salvador.
“But they are not the only ones, they are not the only places where there are setbacks in terms of human rights, fundamental rights, civil liberties and also the exercise of democracy,” he said.