King Felipe meets with Bukele before the inauguration | The Basque Journal

King Felipe VI landed yesterday in San Salvador to attend this Saturday the inauguration ceremony of the President of the Republic of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, with whom he met upon arriving in the country at the presidential offices. After the meeting, the monarch moved to the Spanish Embassy, ​​where he received in audience a representation of the Spanish community in El Salvador.

Upon arrival at the airport, the King, who traveled accompanied by the Secretary of State for Ibero-America and the Caribbean and Spanish in the World, Susana Sumelzo, was received by the Chancellor of the Republic, Alexandra Hill; the Spanish ambassador in El Salvador, Carlos de la Morena, and the representative of El Salvador in Spain, Joaquín Alexander.

The Salvadoran Government has indicated that “his presence is a symbol of the close friendship and cooperation” between both countries, according to the Salvadoran newspaper ‘El Mundo’.

This trip to El Salvador is the second that the monarch has made to attend an inauguration of an Ibero-American leader this year, after attending that of the president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, last January. With this, there are fifteen trips of this type that he has made since his accession to the throne, which will soon be ten years old.

Re-elected

Bukele was re-elected president of the Republic of El Salvador last Sunday, February 4. The investiture ceremony will be held this afternoon at the National Palace in Plaza Gerardo Barrios, in the Historic Center of San Salvador.

The presence of other international heads of state and government is expected at the event, including the Argentine president, Javier Milei, who will coincide in the midst of the diplomatic crisis between Spain and Argentina, the president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, the president of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani; and a delegation from the United States.

On the other hand, some deputies from the main opposition parties in El Salvador will not be at the investiture, since they maintain that this second term violates the Constitution, despite the ruling of the Supreme Court of Justice that opened the door to re-election.

The ruling party in El Salvador, Nuevas Ideas, obtained 82% of the votes in the February elections within the framework of the war against gangs in the country, for which Bukele imposed a state of exception in March 2022 that has continued since then, with no signs of it ending.

The success of its security strategy leads to some 74,000 detainees, the dismantling of gangs and homicide rates among the lowest in Latin America through the suspension of fundamental rights, such as the right to expression and organization.