The standoff continued on Tuesday (February 11th) in El Salvador between deputies and the president, Nayib Bukele, two days after his raid surrounded by soldiers inside the precincts of Congress. The charismatic head of state castigated " the blocking " member of his plan to fight organized crime. Opposite, opposition lawmakers denounced "An attempted coup". Enough to provoke democratic outcry beyond the borders of this small country (6.5 million inhabitants) of Central America. Tenacious, the 38-year-old reformist president is nonetheless trying to defuse the crisis.
It is protected by dozens of soldiers and police, assault rifle in hand, that the president had occupied, Sunday, February 9, the gallery of the Legislative Assembly (unicameral), where his party Nuevas Ideas (New Ideas) has no elected representative on 84 seats. The head of state, in office since June 2019, had treated the deputies of "Worthless", accusing them of blocking, by refusing to sit, a $ 109 million loan for his plan to fight criminal gangs in one of the most violent countries in the world.
Threat of insurrection
Mr. Bukele had referred to the divine in front of a crowd of supporters. "God asked me to be patient", he asserted, before imposing a week-long ultimatum on the deputies to validate the funding of his security plan. "Otherwise, I will not oppose a popular insurrection", he said, referring to an article of the Constitution recognizing the right to insurgency. According to him, the fact that MPs refuse to sit to vote on his plan is a break "Of the constitutional order" that would justify an uprising.
Faced with outrage, however, Bukele eased the pressure a little on Tuesday, agreeing to comply with the demands of the Supreme Court, which urged him to "Not to use armed force for activities contrary to the objectives established in the Constitution". "Although we do not agree, we will respect the order issued by the Supreme Court ", Finally announced the president.
The threat of insurrection was denounced by Mario Ponce, deputy of the National Concertation Party (PCN, conservative) and president of the Parliament: "You can't respond to the executive with a gun to the temple. " In the gallery on Sunday, Mr. Bukele sat on Mr. Ponce's seat to deliver his accusing speech, provoking the ire of opposition parliamentarians, who deplored with one voice "Presidential authoritarianism".
