From our partners in solidarity, the SHARE Foundation for El Salvador.
On Saturday, May 1, 2021, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s controlled National Assembly ordered the removal of five Justices of the Supreme Court of the Salvadoran Republic and the installation of hand-picked Justices in violation of the process and procedures outlined in the Salvadoran Constitution.
The SHARE Foundation joins the legal, human rights, and broad, cross-section of civil society in El Salvador to denounce the illegal and unconstitutional removal of the Supreme Court of El Salvador by President Bukele’s controlled Assembly as an attack on the rule of law, Salvadoran democracy and the human rights of all Salvadorans. Specifically:
We condemn the disregard for and violation of the rule of law, democratic institutions, an independent judiciary and checks and balances endemic to a healthy democracy;
We recognize this blatant disregard for the rule of law as yet another action among many by President Bukele and his allies that belies the deep corruption within his own administration and disrespect for the constitution and the entire established system.
This action by President Bukele and the National Assembly threatens to push Salvadoran democracy back to the prewar years when the concentration of power absent checks and balances resulted in horrific and well documented human rights abuses.
We join the call of social, human rights and legal organizations in El Salvador and the international community to demand that the president and his allies respect the rule of law, an independent judiciary, and checks and balances and that they stop pursuingan agenda that seeks is to centralize total power and marginalize and/or repress sectors that do not share their policy priorities.
We invite the solidarity movement and human rights organizations to condemn these events and to demand that the Salvadoran government stop its anti-democratic, unconstitutional actions and restore the rule of law. We call upon our elected leaders to condition all foreign aid to El Salvador on the reinstatement of the Supreme Court and adherence to democratic principles and procedures as delineated in the Salvadoran Constitution.
We stand in solidarity with human rights organizations and the Salvadoran people in general;we accompany them in their protest actions and demands for the reestablishment of the democratic system and the existence of checks and balances.
Jose Artiga
Executive Director, SHARE El Salvador
