2023-09-02 00:20:00
The indefinite re-election of Nayib Bukele it starts playing in El Salvador. This quest to remain in power and prolong a political project has gone wrong for some, such as Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador and Juan Orlando Hernández in Honduras.
Technically, only Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela have managed to bend the term-limiting rules and perpetuate themselves, but at the cost of their institutions and democracies.
Panorama general. In the Salvadoran case, security and the war against organized crime have been the main pretext for Bukele, who has assured on several occasions that it takes more than five years to achieve the expected balance. The majority of the population supports this maneuver.
In accordance with article 152 of the Constitution of El Salvador, “the presidential term will be five years, beginning and ending on June 1, without the person who has held the Presidency being able to continue in office for one more day.” . However, on August 31, 2021, the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador approved a series of changes, including one that forced the retirement of judges over 60 years of age or with more than 30 years of career, affecting almost a third of the Judicial Branch. A few days later, on September 3, 2021, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) ruled that the President of the Republic could serve two consecutive terms. In addition, it annulled a ruling from 2014, which established that presidents must wait ten years to run for re-election. At that time, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) complied with the CSJ’s order.
It’s news. Bukele proclaimed his ambition to participate in the re-election campaign. On June 26, 2023, he formally registered his candidacy.
In response, a faction of independent lawyers filed an appeal to reverse the ruling issued in 2021 by the CSJ. The action was dismissed by the TSE on August 18.
Newspaper library. The phenomenon of indefinite re-election comes from the long term of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, who came to power in 1998 and who, after his death in 2013, gave rise to Nicolás Maduro. Later, the Daniel Ortega regime in Nicaragua did the same.
Evo Morales in Bolivia and Rafael Correa in Ecuador sought indefinite re-election, the first did not finish his term and fled the country, the second went into exile. Another president who circumvented the constitutional prohibition was the Honduran Juan Orlando Hernández. The former president won the elections for a second term in 2017, amid rejection by the opposition, which denounced an alleged fraud. After completing his mandate, he was captured and extradited to the US for drug trafficking.
The balance. The examples of countries like Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, of their migrants and refugees, of their deaths and prisoners, remind us that the erosion of institutions has far-reaching consequences.
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