Bugel begins his controversial second term with full power, but with increasing poverty and harassment from enemies and journalists.

Naib Bukhele Five days before his second term as president, he ordered the deployment of thousands of soldiers and police in Apoba, a working-class suburb of the capital San Salvador. Savior. He then filled his X account with photos of the deployment and announced that he would harass the perpetrators again. And, more cleverly, the Salvadoran army began stationing dozens of soldiers in the center of the city, as Bugel was sworn in this Saturday for his second term, which he accepted after being re-elected with a majority in defiance of the constitution. Ordinances prohibiting the exercise of two consecutive terms of office.

Ahead of the inauguration, this Saturday is scheduled to begin at 8:00 am local time. Historic Center of San SalvadorThe General Force also arrested three community leaders who showed important positions among them Jose Santos MelaraA war veteran who led mass protests and protests against the government.

The Military deployments They were common in the first Buchel government, which made public safety its main commitment and pillar of its popularity. One of the axes of this policy, perhaps the most important, is a Rule of exception Although the measure is considered temporary in law, it restricts the constitutional rights of association, freedom of movement and due process effective March 27, 2022. Bukhel ruled after this extraordinary reign Governance Agreement between his government and the MS13 and Barrio 18 gangs.

The emergency rule, added to other legal reforms approved by the country’s Congress, which has been dominated by the Bugelista majority since 2021, allowed the president to consolidate. Fewer murders The Central American country began to look almost a decade ago.

Public safety policies also forced change MS13 and Barrio 18 This pushed them to reduce their activity in the neighborhoods and cities of El Salvador they previously controlled. To achieve this, Buchel and his officers, among others They protected several MS13 leaders from extradition to the United States Also, some of them were allowed to leave prison and leave El Salvador.

According to Bugel’s campaigners and independent analysts, improvements in public safety have given the president the popularity he enjoys, lifting him to easy re-election in last February’s elections.

This Saturday, Pugel will make his debut in the Salvadoran capital’s central square, accompanied by thousands of followers the government will take on buses rented from transportation companies. Renovated facilities of the National PalaceThe neoclassical architecture building underwent a last-minute intervention by public servants before the opening ceremony: In May the government removed centuries-old tiles imported from Belgium and replaced them with more recent ones, much to the chagrin of historians and critics. .

A half-dozen Latin American leaders will attend Bugel’s banquet. King of Spain The American team led by Alejandro Mayorkas, Joe Biden’s Secretary of Homeland Security. Among the visits to Latin America, the local press is very notable Javier M, an Argentine president who shares some irreverent and controversial ways with the popular Salvadoran, and who, like Bugel, defied his country’s political class and came to power for the first time. A notable absence Bernardo ArevaloPresident of Guatemala, which is El Salvador’s main trading partner, ahead of the United States.

On the same day that the Salvatores re-elected Bugel, they voted for new representatives. Beyond the allegations, the presidential election results gave Bugel a comfortable, unopposed victory The nomination itself is unconstitutional.

In the legislative elections, Bugel once again won a majority, with the previous reform exceeding the number of seats in Congress as it was done outside the time frame established in the law; Those elections, in addition, were marred by allegations of irregularities, such as the denial of independent press access to the tally and the breakdown of computer systems. Supreme Election Court Illegal confiscation of ballot boxes, sometimes for hours. Eventually, however, buccalism caught on again in the Legislature.

Already in his first term, after achieving his first majority in the 2021-2024 legislature, Buckel made legislative reforms and key appointments that gave him complete control of the state, including the legislative and judicial branches, the Attorney General’s Office, and the judiciary. Accounts, Election Court, among other institutions.

So, without counterweights, Bukkel will enter a second term in which the opposition in the legislature can be counted on the fingers of one hand and a free press will face. Inundated with constant threats of persecution and restrictions on access to public information; Restrictions on the press begin on the same day as the inauguration: the last day of May, the day before the inauguration, El Salvador Association of Journalists It condemned the presidency for denying credentials to independent reporters or revoking some already issued.

Neither political opposition nor the press would be obstacles for Buchel to face; The most important hurdles facing the president are the economic and fiscal health of the state.

One piece of data that the government cannot hide is poverty. According to a report by La Prensa Gráfica newspaper, based on statistics from the Ministry of Economy, Poverty increased by five points In Bukele’s first term: from 22.8% of households in 2019 to 27.2% in 2023. In those years, the economy, driven in part by post-pandemic recovery, grew at a slightly higher rate than recent annual figures.

The other urgent issue, highlighted by several risk analyst houses and the same International Monetary Fund (IMF), the pace of growth in public debt reached 85% of GDP in the middle of last year and continues to grow rapidly.

To plug his financial gaps, Bukhel sought to buy back his own debt, which has left the country’s credit rating at a level rarely seen before, and British house Barclays confirmed, Return to retirement savings funds Workers should try to solve certain obligations. Bukhel, during his first term, had to resort to cheating to worsen the outlook to avoid falling into a non-payment situation; Alternative means had to be resorted to In the absence of an agreement with the IMF This allows El Salvador to access a US$1.4 billion loan and open up other credit sources at the multilateral bank.

The impasse with the IMF has been going on for nearly three years and began due to the Fund’s observations of deficit growth, governance issues and implementation. Bitcoin As currency of national circulation. Bukhel and his messengers Washington, the IMF’s headquarters, has tried to restart negotiations, but they remain deadlocked. A former US officer who served for Biden government And closely followed Central American politics told Infobae that despite the recent accords between Washington and San Salvador, Bukele said an agreement was unlikely unless he reconsidered his Bitcoin policy.

Nayeb Bukele was the first Salvadoran president to serve a second consecutive term since his inauguration in 1935. Maximiliano Hernandez MartinezA soldier who staged a coup three years ago and who resorted to strange interpretations of the constitution to circumvent constitutional restrictions, even then, is barring re-election.

Hernández Martínez used the manual first used in Martinado, known as the Dictatorship, to establish Pugel in power. The first step is to ensure control of the entire state.

In May 2021, Bugel illegally dismissed the Republic’s Attorney General and judges after winning a majority in that year’s legislative elections. Supreme Court Like-minded officials should be appointed in their place. The new Supreme Court justices reinterpreted an article of the constitution that September, opening the way for re-election with their new reading.

History points to Hernández Martínez being responsible for the 1932 massacre of peasants and indigenous peoples in the west of the country that killed around 32,000 people.

By the time Bugele takes office for a second term, El Salvador will have nearly 100,000 prisoners. 80,000 of them have been imprisoned since the start of the emergency rule In 2022. These are the figures given by Bugel’s Minister of Public Security, Gustavo Villatoro, at the end of May. This makes El Salvador the country with the highest prison population in the world: 605 per 100,000 people at the end of last year.

Various human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have reported that torture is practiced in Bukhel’s prisons. Dozens of people have died Violence while in state custody. According to Ingrid Escobar, from Humanitarian Legal Aid, 241 people died In this scenario from March 2022 onwards.

A preview of Second inauguration Bukele has been marked by two versions of El Salvador built since 2019, the first time he came to power: official propaganda paints a vibrant, crime-free and prosperous country, and an incipient dictatorship. In great style Hugo Chavez In Venezuela he began with the popular approval of a charismatic politician, and a dark country marked by state terrorism.

The First Nation is certified by presidential assent, almost intact after five years, and foreign leaders present at the inauguration. The second country, for example, talks about the capture of Jose Santos Melara, a war veteran who led massive street protests, and the early morning of May 31 when police officers from Pugelin went to take him from his home and then accuse him of orchestrating the acts. Instability during acquisition.