The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) emphatically rejects the recent incursion of the president of El Salvador Náyib Bukele and a military squad in the Legislative Assembly of his country, in a clear act of intimidation that seeks to press for the approval of a bank loan managed by his administration.
The irruption in the Assembly constitutes an open attack on the pillars of the rule of law and the basic principles of democracy based on the separation of powers and respect for mechanisms to prevent abuse of power. Bukele has given an ultimatum to the Legislative Assembly to approve the loan, under the threat of resorting to other methods such as dissolving it.
It is also worrying the rush with which Bukele tries to approve the loan of US $ 109 million from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, which aims to modernize the equipment of the National Civil Police and the Armed Forces.
Such actions are unacceptable. Therefore, we urge the government of El Salvador to cease immediately and definitively all kinds of pressures towards the Legislative Assembly, as well as to reject any threat of interventions outside democratic and constitutional order.
The FIDH and its member organizations will be attentive to the development of events in El Salvador, trusting that the government will refrain from carrying out new actions that affect institutional life, peace, democracy and respect for human rights.
