(San Salvador) Amnesty International said it was “concerned” Friday about a reform of the Constitution of El Salvador approved this week, believing that it could have a “negative impact” on respect for human rights, experts seeing it as “the consolidation of a dictatorial pattern”.
The unicameral parliament dominated by the allies of President Nayib Bukele, at war against gangs, approved on Monday a controversial modification of article 248 of the Constitution which allows to accelerate constitutional changes.
This reform “raises concerns about the negative impact it could have on respect for human rights,” indicates the human rights organization. It “tends to considerably reduce the space for debate and reflection and to limit the participation of citizens in questions of public interest,” she adds.
Until now, constitutional reforms had to be approved by “half plus one” of deputies, then ratified by two-thirds of the renewed parliament during the following election.
With the new reform, deputies will be able to directly ratify constitutional changes “with the vote of three quarters” of the 60 deputies of the parliament, in which Bukele’s party has 54 seats.
Amnesty noted that over the past three years, the ruling party’s “supermajority” in parliament “has been a key element” in “the erosion of judicial independence and the weakening of oversight mechanisms.” and responsibility”.
“The president has a free hand to pass all the measures he wants, without anything to counterbalance him,” independent analyst Carlos Araujo told AFP, who believes that Mr. Bukele will be able to approve “constitutional reforms at will, without analysis, without discussion.”
“It seems to me that the country is heading towards the consolidation of a dictatorial pattern of greater concentration of power,” political analyst Eugenio Chicas told AFP.
Nayib Bukele, who became president in June 2019, won a new five-year mandate during the elections of February 4, during which he obtained 84.65% of the votes, favored by his merciless war against the “maras”, the gangs that terrorized the country.
On Tuesday, the government announced that 75% of suspected gang members had been arrested. But human rights organizations criticize Nayib Bukele’s methods, denouncing arbitrary detentions, mistreatment, cases of torture and deaths in prison.