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El Salvador: In first night with control of Congress, Nayib Bukele removes all opposing judges and Attorney General.

Fj0823

Fj0823

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abcnews.go.com

El Salvador's new assembly votes to oust high chamber judges

El Salvador’s new Legislative Assembly, controlled by President Nayib Bukele’s New Ideas party, held its first session Saturday with lawmakers voting to remove the magistrates of the constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court
abcnews.go.com abcnews.go.com

The judges in question blocked his attempt to use the pandemic to give himself emergency powers.



To our friends from the International Community:

We want to work with you, trade, travel, get to know each other and help where we can.

Our doors are more open than ever.

But with all due respect:

We are cleaning our house.

... and that's none of your business.
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Maybe some Salvadorian posters can shed some light into this, because for an outsider perspective this does not look like anything but a dictator consolidating power like Chavez or Ortega...
 
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Kain

Kain

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Oct 27, 2017
7,604
This is usually either very good or very bad
 
Serpens007

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Oct 31, 2017
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Armadilo said:
Latin America seems like a huge mess, lots of power hungry people that want corruption
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Some times it's more complicated than that, and it's not just specific power hungry people and more like an entire group or groups trying to keep the status q|uo supporting each other. Populists get the more eyes, but places like Colombia right now are under heavy civil suppresion, it's terrible
 
Weiss

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It's just happening all over the fucking planet these days isn't it?

It's like everywhere at once now.
 
NookSports

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Oct 27, 2017
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Salvadoran here, though haven't lived there in 15 years, still have family and keep up with the news there.

It's hard not to call it at dictatorship at this point. On paper Bukele's agenda is populist, and has been threatening to go after unpaid taxes from some of the biggest businesses in the country. Particularly the old, corrupt and few family businesses that have controlled the country historically.

it should be said his criticism of the 1% and their corruption and tax evasion is correct; and he is in power thanks to free and fair elections where he won with huge majorities.

However, He's also been cozying up to the military and offering to increase their role in the country, years after the peace accords greatly diminished their power to prevent the return of the military dictatorships.

One thing is clear… seems like they'll move fast. Next up is probably a constitutional amendment to let him run for re-election indefinitely (has been toying with that publicly)

And then he'll have to finally unveil his true agenda cause with those new judges and AG he'll be able to go after anyone and enact any law he wants.

I've no idea what he'll do. Based on what I've read and what he says, I think he's trying to replace the old oligarchs with new ones; to have a Putin-style autocracy.

My biggest fear is how he'll handle the gang crime problem. Gang violence is so bad, and the entire tenor is so dehumanized. Add to that his relationship with the military. The ingredients are there for something really bad.

*****

For some extra fun, he's in power thanks largely to the growing power of Evangelical churches; which are now close to 50% of the population, a rapid shift since the 80s, when the country was 90% Catholic.

This is all thanks to well-documented US based efforts to diminish the power of the Catholic church during the 80s, cause the theology of liberation sounded like communist propaganda to them (and the Salvadoran elites too).

So if you've ever been on a mission trip to Latin American countries, thanks I guess
 
HardRojo

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Seems like a "ummm, let's watch this guy very closely, ok?" situation. I'm not looking forward to Peru's elections next month… we're in a terrible situation ourselves.
 
Armadilo

Armadilo

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Oct 27, 2017
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Gustaf said:
and those "power hungry people" are not even from latin america
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In regards to the government's, are you not looking at what's happening? Colombia going after it's own people because they wanted to tax them, Mexico government doing business with cartels, even Brazil with everything going over there.
 

Deleted member 22465

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Thanks for posting this, I live in El Salvador and the government went full coup d'etat yesterday. Here is a twitter thread from an independent media outlet that Bukele accuses of being financed by George Soros (to give you all an idea of the same far-right conspiracy theories that he spews).




He hated the magistrates' decision of taking away the state of emergency after Bukele kept extending it, without any economic recovery or health plan in sight and his government (with the help of the national police and military) just kept violating people"s rights by sending any person that was unauthorized to be on the streets to quarintine facilities that became overpopulated with some facilities having 200+ people in it, which ended spreading covid faster in the country. Also some of those facilities are hotels that were rented to a relative of the health minister, who also is Bukele's cousin.

Also he and his government used the state of emergency to hide any irregularities with the purchases of medical supplies (which a lot were purchased from Bukele's own government officials or even to a car parts shop in Spain!), some of those supplies ended being deffective, causing more harm than good to the doctors attending the emergency.

Also last month Bukele attacked Rep. Norma Torres and urged the latinamerican community of California to vote her out:

www.npr.org

Tweet For Tweet: El Salvador's President And U.S. Congresswoman Spar Over Migrants

The two politicians have carried on a furious exchange all week over who is responsible for the surge in migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Their debate on Twitter has been less than diplomatic.
www.npr.org www.npr.org

So yeah, he is an authoritarian president that wants control over every branch of the salvadoran government and he even said back in 2019 that he and Trump were similar to each other, but apparently he took that quite literally to the point of using Trump's rethorics of fake news, an horde of fake accounts to attack any negative comment of him on social media and calling any opposing media outlet or political party, an "enemy of the people".

And all of the above is just the tip of the iceberg of what he has done just after the pandemic started (not counting the attempted military coup of february last year during the past legislative assembly).
 
WhySoDevious

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Oct 31, 2017
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It's certainly a bad look for Bukele, but from what I understand, completely legal… the legislative assembly can vote to remove magistrates of the court… and Bukele and his party have enough votes to do so (though I'm sure they made up bogus reasons to vote them out).

I live next door in Honduras, and this is on par for Latin American leaders…. our President did a similar move years ago to get judges that would approve re-election, something that was not allowed in our Constitution. I think it's inevitable that Bukele will do the same.

I mean, would it be too dissimilar to stacking SCOTUS with five more judges if a party controlled the Presidency and had a 60+ majority in the Senate?
 
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Briareos

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Oct 28, 2017
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Dlcgo said:
And all of the above is just the tip of the iceberg of what he has done just after the pandemic started (not counting the attempted military coup of february last year during the past legislative assembly).
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WhySoDevious said:
It's certainly a bad look for Bukele, but from what I understand, completely legal… the legislative assembly can vote to remove magistrates of the court… and Bukele and his party have enough votes to do so (though I'm sure they made up bogus reasons to vote them out).
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As an outsider, trying to find information on election integrity in El Salvador is difficult, but I don't see anything that implies there were severe irregularities, at least from what I've read. Freedom House seems to have a decent global review of the state of various pieces of the government and polity:

freedomhouse.org

El Salvador: Freedom in the World 2021 Country Report | Freedom House

See the Freedom in the World 2021 score and learn about democracy and freedom in El Salvador.
freedomhouse.org freedomhouse.org

it looks like most of the impact to the process is through second order effects (e.g. press, gang involvement, etc.). My superficial read is that the situation in El Salvador is a (sadly) not-uncommon appeal to authoritarianism to deal with crippling criminal violence from gangs and perceived corruption from entrenched parties which have failed to handle it over the years. Dlcgo do you have recommended sources of news in English for those of us interested in following the situation?

Without trying to trivialize things, can't believe a person who wears a baseball cap backwards would get elected to anything except fraternity president, eesh, it's very much "you wouldn't believe it were it a piece of fiction."
 
OP
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Fj0823

Fj0823

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HardRojo said:
Seems like a "ummm, let's watch this guy very closely, ok?" situation. I'm not looking forward to Peru's elections next month… we're in a terrible situation ourselves.
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Costa Rica is not far off...Evangelical fundamentalist are out for blood after being defeated twice by a progressive party that has being pretty bad despite some major positive changes.

They're trying their damnest to turn the election into an abortion referendum, just like they rose to power thanks to their attempt to stop gay marriage (which failed hard), thankfully they haven't succeeded
 
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Keasar

Keasar

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Oct 25, 2017
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Tochtli79 said:
We just need more lessons in freedom
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3MrSOy57OWTTLgGQRD2bBoPcuf5B22L8qcn4BZ3D6Tg.jpg
 

Deleted member 22465

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Briareos said:
As an outsider, trying to find information on election integrity in El Salvador is difficult, but I don't see anything that implies there were severe irregularities, at least from what I've read. Freedom House seems to have a decent global review of the state of various pieces of the government and polity:

freedomhouse.org

El Salvador: Freedom in the World 2021 Country Report | Freedom House

See the Freedom in the World 2021 score and learn about democracy and freedom in El Salvador.
freedomhouse.org freedomhouse.org

it looks like most of the impact to the process is through second order effects (e.g. press, gang involvement, etc.). My superficial read is that the situation in El Salvador is a (sadly) not-uncommon appeal to authoritarianism to deal with crippling criminal violence from gangs and perceived corruption from entrenched parties which have failed to handle it over the years. Dlcgo do you have recommended sources of news in English for those of us interested in following the situation?

Without trying to trivialize things, can't believe a person who wears a baseball cap backwards would get elected to anything except fraternity president, eesh, it's very much "you wouldn't believe it were it a piece of fiction."
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The Freedom House link is a small summary of what happened from february 2020 to february 2021, so it is too soon to see what the next report will say about what happened yesterday.

And the only news in english that I could find are from Reuters and AP:

www.reuters.com

Political clash erupts in El Salvador as Congress votes out judges

Lawmakers aligned with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele voted on Saturday to remove all of the top judges on the country's supreme court, which the opposition and a range of international critics slammed as a dangerous power grab.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com

apnews.com

El Salvador's new assembly votes to oust high chamber judges

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s new Legislative Assembly, controlled by President Nayib Bukele’s New Ideas party, held its first session Saturday with lawmakers voting to remove the magistrates of the constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court.
apnews.com apnews.com

Then only El Faro english twitter account is the only english media that's been up to date with the news, and they have been posting the reactions from the international community:





 
Serpens007

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Briareos said:
As an outsider, trying to find information on election integrity in El Salvador is difficult, but I don't see anything that implies there were severe irregularities, at least from what I've read. Freedom House seems to have a decent global review of the state of various pieces of the government and polity:

freedomhouse.org

El Salvador: Freedom in the World 2021 Country Report | Freedom House

See the Freedom in the World 2021 score and learn about democracy and freedom in El Salvador.
freedomhouse.org freedomhouse.org

it looks like most of the impact to the process is through second order effects (e.g. press, gang involvement, etc.). My superficial read is that the situation in El Salvador is a (sadly) not-uncommon appeal to authoritarianism to deal with crippling criminal violence from gangs and perceived corruption from entrenched parties which have failed to handle it over the years. Dlcgo do you have recommended sources of news in English for those of us interested in following the situation?

Without trying to trivialize things, can't believe a person who wears a baseball cap backwards would get elected to anything except fraternity president, eesh, it's very much "you wouldn't believe it were it a piece of fiction."
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I really don't know if I can take Freedomhouse too seriously, or at least not take it with massive grain of salt

I just checked how my country ranks, and whew, I didn't know I lived in such a democratic paradise

freedomhouse.org

Chile: Freedom in the World 2021 Country Report | Freedom House

See the Freedom in the World 2021 score and learn about democracy and freedom in Chile.
freedomhouse.org freedomhouse.org

It actually pains me that we still have that international image after these years. I guess having the military spy on journalists who report on their corruption, constantly giving opinion in civil matters and "just expressing how they feel" in regards to freedom of speech, with the government and courts approval, just happens in our collective imagination. Or how a government who has commited massive violations of human rights is okay because all Freedomhouse is telling is how pretty our elections are! I mean it's good we have an elected government with less than 10% popular support but lobbies it's way out of impeachments despite admitting to omissions in guarding human rights of protestors or constantly failing to help the people during the pandemic. Or, I don't know, how the state of emergency has been used to supress protests while the two major ruling political conglomerates sings the democracy song, increasing the "can the opposition gain power through elections?" ranks when in reality the democratic rules are just a way of keeping the status quo.

In other words, ymmv, and situations can be much worse than what an index tells.
 
Chikor

Chikor

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Oct 26, 2017
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Serpens007 said:
I really don't know if I can take Freedomhouse too seriously, or at least not take it with massive grain of salt
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Freedom house is garbage.
It is funded by the US government and align with its interested.
They supported both the war in Vietnam and Iraq in the name of "freedom".

p.s.
Want to take a wild guess how Israel scores there?

ylzl0BZ.png


Pikachu shocked.jpg
 

Deleted member 3208

Oct 25, 2017
11,934
NookSports said:
For some extra fun, he's in power thanks largely to the growing power of Evangelical churches; which are now close to 50% of the population, a rapid shift since the 80s, when the country was 90% Catholic.

This is all thanks to well-documented US based efforts to diminish the power of the Catholic church during the 80s, cause the theology of liberation sounded like communist propaganda to them (and the Salvadoran elites too).

So if you've ever been on a mission trip to Latin American countries, thanks I guess
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Why it doesn't surprise me that the US is behind the rise of the evangelical nuts in Latin America?

It really worries me the situation in Salvador. Bukele is a dictator in all but name only. With the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary under his control, things will get ugly there. And of course, more people fleeing the country. It is a big mess.
 
NSESN

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Yesternight Eduardo Bolsonaro, Brazilian president's son celebrated this thing. Enough for me to know this is awful
 
AlteredBeast

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HardRojo said:
Seems like a "ummm, let's watch this guy very closely, ok?" situation. I'm not looking forward to Peru's elections next month… we're in a terrible situation ourselves.
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Who are you voting foe, if you don't mind me asking. Both sides in Peru make the other sound like their candidate is the literal devil. Lol

I lived there in the post-Fujimori, pre-Garcia (2nd time) era and things seemed calm and rational compared to what I've seen in the past 10 years or so.
 
HardRojo

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AlteredBeast said:
Who are you voting foe, if you don't mind me asking. Both sides in Peru make the other sound like their candidate is the literal devil. Lol

I lived there in the post-Fujimori, pre-Garcia (2nd time) era and things seemed calm and rational compared to what I've seen in the past 10 years or so.
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I voted for Veronika Mendoza in the first round, now that it's between Keiko Fujimori and Pedro Castillo... I'm not so sure. Both options are terrible and, for argument's sake, if I had to be selfish by putting my priviledges on top of everything else, Keiko would be the easy choice for me (and that's what plenty of people are doing), but then there's also Castillo, whose extremism I'm not too fond of and even though he's a candidate for those who are in need (and I sympathize with that), the founder of his part has been actually sentenced before for corruption and it doesn't seem like he's got a coherent plan in mind for his government, plus he's very conservative when it comes to topics like abortion, women's rights, gay marriage and legalization of marihuana (Keiko is conservative in these regard as well). I'm gonna take all of May to see who I go with, it's hard to make a choice right now.
 

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i think i watched a video talking about him, that was the populist neolib guy that used twitter a lot to get into power? if i remember right the marketing made him look "cool" and "handsome" to help him win.
 
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