In accordance with Articles 131 and 158 of the Constitution, the Presidents of the Republic must request authorization from the Legislature to leave the country.
“The President of the Republic is prohibited from leaving the national territory without a license from the Legislative Assembly,” reads Article 158 of the Constitution of the Republic; but, in the opinion of opposition MPs, President Nayib Bukele traveled to Washington without the endorsement of the Assembly.
“The President of the Republic left the country, without the permission of the Legislative Assembly, as ordered by the Constitution, it is up to the Attorney General to take appropriate action,” said Deputy René Portillo Quadra, of ARENA.
Legislative Decree 540 of January 9, 2020 is the latest passed by the Assembly to grant permits for President Bukele to travel abroad.
SEE ALSO: Bukele travels to Washington and no Biden government official wanted to receive him
The decree states that Bukele will be able to leave the national territory during the period from January 10, 2020 to December 31, 2020, “in order to carry out the official missions that are already planned at that date.”
“A President of the Republic has never been denied permission to leave the country, it is a courtesy protocol, it has never been denied in the history of the Assembly, nor to himself (Bukele) himself. In legal terms it is equivalent in a notification, the country must be informed when the president is not for all practical purposes, even because it is the vice-president who assumes the functions of president.A country cannot be left without a head of state, Bukele left the country, without a doubt, in January, they didn’t receive him in Washington, there in the White House, it’s another thing, but he did leave without having asked for permission, he left the boat with the rudder loose without a single driver, “said PDC MP Rodolfo Parker.
President Bukele’s permits for the said period were as follows: in Guatemala for the inauguration of the President of that country, in January 2020; to a working visit to Washington, DC United States in March 2020; to a U.S. textile event in April 2020; on the presidential tour of the Asian Continent in June 2020, which included Korea, India and Singapore.
SEE ALSO: US Congressmen urge Bukele to step aside from speeches of political violence
As well as at the SICA Presidents Summit in Honduras in June last year; in Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, at the inauguration of the president of that country; in New York, United States at the LXXV United Nations General Assembly in September 2020; a presidential tour of Europe that included Spain, Germany and France in November 2020; at the XXVII Iberoamerican Summit of Heads of State and Government in Andorra in November last year; and at the SICA Presidents Summit in Nicaragua last December.
It was learned yesterday that Bukele was traveling to Washington with the intention of meeting with officials of President Joe Biden’s administration, but was not received.
A source in Washington with first-hand information from President Biden’s team told El Diario de Bui that Bukele sought to meet with the State Department, equivalent to the U.S. Chancellery, and with Juan Gonzalez. , chief adviser to the White House National Security Council for the Western Hemisphere, but orders were denied.
The source close to the White House consulted by El Diari d’Avui stated that denying Bukele’s meeting request and González’s interview send a fairly clear message: “The rule of law, respect for the basic rules in a democracy they are going to be important to the Biden administration based on these principles and not ideology. “
However, Bukele replied on his Twitter account regarding the dumped information from his trip to Washington the following: “Whoever thinks a president is going to travel to another country to sit down to ask for meetings, should review well. if you have a brain of your own. More than 100 years ago they invented the telephone (without considering other technologies), so as not to call and coordinate an appointment in advance. “