SAN SALVADOR— El Salvador's top court has ruled
that the country's president can serve two consecutive terms, opening the door
for Nayib Bukele to stand for reelection in 2024 and sparking condemnation from
the US government.
اضافة اعلان
The ruling was handed down late on Friday by judges
appointed by lawmakers from Bukele's ruling party in May after they had removed
the previous justices, a step that drew strong
criticism from the United
States and other foreign powers.
The US embassy in El Salvador on Saturday slammed the
judges' ruling as unconstitutional and a blow to bilateral ties.
The constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice
ordered the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to enable a president who had not been
in office "in the immediately preceding period to participate in the
electoral contest for a second occasion."
The electoral tribunal said in a brief statement on Saturday
that it would follow the court's instructions.
In recent years, the relaxing of presidential terms limits
in parts of Latin America has stirred concerns among Western officials about a
gradual erosion of democracy.
American officials are also concerned about what they see as
signs of authoritarianism under Bukele, who last year sent troops into Congress
to pressure lawmakers into approving legislation, and who has withdrawn from
US-backed anti-corruption accords.
Bukele has pushed back against accusations of
authoritarianism, arguing he is cleaning up the country.
His government has readied constitutional
changes that aim to extend the presidential term to six years from five,
and include the possibility of revoking the president's mandate, among other
steps.
That has yet to go to the Central American country's
congress, which Bukele's party and its allies control.
Bukele, a popular but divisive 40-year-old president, has
not commented on the court's ruling.
In 2014, the court ruled that presidents would have to wait
10 years after leaving office to be reelected.
Speaking to reporters at the US embassy on the edge of the
capital San Salvador on Saturday evening, US chargé d'affaires Jean Manes
decried the court's decision, saying that allowing immediate reelection was
"clearly contrary to the Salvadoran constitution."
Manes said the decision was a direct result of the
replacement of the court's judges with Bukele loyalists, arguing it was part of
strategy to "undermine judicial independence" and eliminate
counterweights to executive power.
"This decline in democracy damages the bilateral
relationship between the United States and
El Salvador, and the relationship
that we've had for decades and want to maintain," she said.
Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas
division of Human Rights Watch, also chided the court, saying on Twitter that
El Salvador was heading down a path taken by Nicaragua and Honduras in allowing
presidents to be reelected.
"Democracy in El Salvador is on the edge of the
abyss," said Vivanco, a critic of Bukele.
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