In these countries, there is subordination of state powers to the presidency, opacity, attacks on critics and a huge shadow of corruption.
About three decades ago, after civil wars, military governments, political violence, and authoritarianism, almost all Central American countries began a process of democratic opening, institutionalization, and opening of political spaces.
This brought with it reforms aimed at ensuring the independence of powers and a respect for the freedoms of dissent, press, peaceful association, among others.
However, this democratic openness did not prove irreversible. In contrast, in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua, institutions have slipped and the four countries have once again been placed on the brink of authoritarian abyss.
In El Salvador, the democratic deterioration did not begin in the management of Nayib Bukele but has accelerated considerably.
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The blocking of information and the taking of control institutions in public management coexist with an aggressiveness of the president, his officials and his fans towards any critic, opponent or journalist. And on May 1, the legislative faction the president controls struck a blow to the rule of law and removed a Constitutional Chamber that limited Bukele’s power and an attorney general that was investigating signs of corruption in the government. .
To this is added the recent ruling issued by this Chamber imposed against the Constitution and which asks the Electoral Court to allow the candidacy for re-election of the current president.
But beyond national territory, all of Central America seems to be abandoning the democratic ideal and sinking into authoritarian and violent regimes with dissent. In the words of Edgar Ortiz Romero, a Guatemalan jurist and political analyst, “in common I see a submission of the judiciary, a weakening of the press and political parties.”
The family dictatorship
A family dictatorship is consolidating in Nicaragua. In a few months, the presidential couple Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo will run in elections to continue in office without an opposition that can challenge them. This, since they have ordered the imprisonment of all their opponents and the hand of a co-opted Judiciary, has shaken all competition.
In the words of José Miguel Vivanco, of Human Rights Watch, “the abuses have been of such magnitude that they invalidate any electoral process. Ortega is buried after the elections, because if he executes the plan, he ends up buried lower than he is, with total lack of credibility “.
There are no credible voices defending the abuses of orthodoxy. Particularly since April 2018, when a pension reform caused a social outbreak that the regime received with violence from its security forces and groups of civilians operating as paramilitary forces.
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The regime has tried to neutralize the critical press. The press reported that Sandinistas withheld tons of paper to prevent them from publishing their printed version and a day later, police flattened the facility’s facilities and detained its staff.
Similar fate has befallen Confidential, through the laureate Carlos Fernando Chamorro, who is being accused of money laundering, a charge he considers unfounded. “This is a political trial, and all political trials are born in El Carmen (Ortega’s residence), here it is decided who to accuse and judge,” said Chamorro, the medium has also been subject to government violations and harassment .
Decades ago, Ortega fought a tyranny, but today it represents the most dramatic case of democratic breakdown in the isthmus, but not the only one. At times, it seems that their Central American peers are looking to emulate.
Honduras, the follower
In 2017, President Juan Orlando Hernandez (JOH) won re-election in a country where only months earlier, this was banned. However, a judiciary loyal to being able to change the rules of the game and endorsed its permanence.
Carlo Jiménez, a lawyer and human rights defender in Honduras, told the media that “the main setbacks are the co-optation of the institution, particularly the one in charge of administering justice.” This device, he explained, is used to persecute critics, while offering a benign treatment to those close to power.
In addition, he points out that JOH has full control of the Legislature and in thus nullifying the independence of powers, it can govern without respecting any limits.
In addition to the concentration of power, the expert notes that in his country there is a huge shadow of opacity, particularly after the passage of laws that leave, under the pretext of preserving national security, many aspects secret. of state management and public finances. The jurist explains that the creation of the National Defense and Security Council was also a gesture by the president to seek to subordinate under his office to Congress, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Court. With this, he has gained the ability to “provoke accusations against enemies, rivals or people who disgust him, even if they are unfounded.”
Finally, he highlights an “obvious control of the mass media.” This through a system of punishments or incentives on the editorial line. With this, he laments, the content of media has been censored that “instead of criticizing the bad actions of the state, they exaggerate or invent good things it does.”
Guatemala coexists with opacity
Recently, the Attorney General of Guatemala, Consuelo Porras, dismissed Juan Francisco Sandoval, internationally recognized for his fight against corruption.
Upon leaving office and leaving the country for fear of reprisals, Sandoval exposed what seemed obvious: the collusion between Porras and dark structures within the government of Alejandro Giammattei seeking to ensure impunity.
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This evil is not new in Guatemala. In 2015, after months of protest, the government of Otto Pérez Molina and Roxana Baldetti fell and the two ended up in prison for running a state fraud network. But this “spring” is over and the corrupt actors transcending the governments of the day are back in business.
Far from rectifying the path, subsequent governments have maintained opacity, allied with dark actors in Congress, and launched their attacks against the media and institutions that have exposed the abuses of power. In addition, when Guatemalans took to the streets to demand justice, they ran into state repression.
The Guatemalan government is currently embroiled in a scandal involving the payment of millions of Russian vaccines that did not arrive. In addition, a media outlet recently picked up the testimony of a private security agent who claims to have witnessed a possible bribe from a Russian businessman to President Giammattei in exchange for a port contract. The president has rejected it.
Beyond the current scandal, in Guatemala it seems that impunity and the capture of the state by opaque and violent actors continue to reign. The co-optation of the judiciary and the attack on the media is similar to that of its neighboring countries.
And Guatemala has one aggravating factor: the weakness of the party system. Amid growing dissatisfaction with country corruption, there do not appear to be solutions within the institution. As lawyer Edgar Ortiz Romero explained to this medium recently, this opens the door for anti-political leadership or anti-system groups to seek prominence.
And like its neighbors, this Guatemala that three decades ago dreamed of abandoning political violence and authoritarianism, is back on the brink of the abyss. For these countries it is valid to ask what is needed to resume the democratic path or whether it is a matter of time to follow the path of Nicaragua or other dictatorships in the region.
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