The emergency regime, which suspends several constitutional guarantees and which is, according to analysts and experts, the only achievement of Nayib Bukele’s government in almost 5 years of government, has helped catapult him to re-election.
The emergency regime has been in force since March 2022 and has become the Government’s main security action and its maximum propaganda card ahead of the presidential elections on February 4.
In these elections, Bukele will seek immediate re-election and, if he wins, he would be the first to repeat the position despite the fact that the Constitution does not allow it.
According to official data, since March 2022 there have been more than 75,100 arrests of people accused of being gang members or collaborators, of which more than 7,000 people have been released on parole.
Humanitarian Legal Aid (SJH) filed a formal complaint on Thursday the 11th against the former director of the Mariona prison, Ricardo Ernesto Salguero; the general director of Penal Centers, Osiris Luna; and the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Gustavo Villatoro; for the possible commission of crimes against humanitytorture, forced disappearance and lack of medical care suffered by prisoners.
According to Ingrid Escobar, director of Legal Aid, those accused are responsible for the death of trade unionist and human rights defender José Leonidas Bonilla, who died not only because of what they initially said, which was due to lack of medical treatment. We have the autopsy and the information that he was tortured.
According to Jayme Magaña, a lawyer from Socorro Jurídico Humanitario, they have had access to Bonilla’s autopsy and were able to confirm that he was tortured.
“According to the autopsy, it has been determined that he suffered multiple trauma, had bleeding in the head, in the stomach, had bruises on the left side of his body. “These are clear indications that he suffered a beating, that we could think that he was tortured inside Mariona,” he assured.
Eduardo Escobar, of the non-governmental organization Acción Ciudadana, is of the opinion that “There is no candidate, no party that can compete with the president at this moment,” and therefore Bukele, who seeks to perpetuate his authoritarian project, is heading to obtain re-election in February amid high popularity and without significant opponents.
The specialist in international affairs, Napoleón Campos, maintains that a Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice “cannot enable what the Constitution does not enable” while the majority of analysts consider that Bukele’s authorization is “illegitimate” because the Chamber is made up of people related to the government.
In the opinion of Juan Papier, deputy director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch, Bukele “created the conditions that allow him to concentrate political power and seek re-election to prolong or perpetuate his authoritarian project.”