The lawyer Luis Parada and the leftist and human rights defender Celia Medrano registered their candidacy in the opposition party Nuestro Tiempo for the 2024 presidential elections, in which they would seek the Presidency and Vice Presidency, respectively.
Parada, a retired soldier who represented El Salvador in various international disputes, including against a mining company, reported on the registration on his social networks.
With our conviction in truth, reason and justice to give El Salvador a better future, @celiamedrano15 and I have presented our application for registration as a presidential formula for the internal elections of @OurTimeSV.
A new dawn is coming…
— Luis Parada (@LAParadaF) July 7, 2023
“With our conviction in truth, reason and justice to give El Salvador a better future, Celia Medrano and I have submitted our application for registration as a presidential formula for the internal elections of Nuestro Tiempo (NT),” said Parada.
The formula, which calls itself center-right, is promoted by members of civil society through the SUMAR platform and has found shelter in the NT party.
In the 2024 elections, President Nayib Bukele will seek his immediate re-election, despite the fact that he himself has indicated in the past that it is unconstitutional.
According to Parada, it would be a “mistake” to leave President Bukele “a free path, without using that great platform of a presidential candidacy to denounce and give a better alternative to people who have already lost hope.”
“In any case, the unconstitutional is the president who wants to be re-elected, from the moment he becomes a candidate. That is not taken away by anything or anyone. He will never be a legitimate president and will fall sooner or later. So the only option is forward,” published Parada.
Celia Medrano told journalists that the 2024 elections will be the last opportunity for the “electoral route” to set “a different course other than the consolidation and advancement of authoritarianism” in El Salvador.
Medrano does not rule out seeking to block his candidacy and that of Parada, a lawyer who represented El Salvador in an international dispute before the Pacific Rim mining company and who also resigned his military rank after Bukele entered, escorted by armed police and soldiers. with assault rifles to the Legislative Assembly in February 2020.
Medrano was director of Humanitarian Management and Human Rights of the Foreign Ministry (2012-2014), consul general of El Salvador in Washington (2020-2012), regional director of programs of the humanitarian organization Cristosal, she also has a postgraduate degree in Human Rights and Education for Peace.