The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, asked the attorney general, Rodolfo Delgado, this Tuesday to investigate his government officials as a measure to supposedly increase control a few days before he leaves his position at the head of the Executive to “dedicate himself to the electoral campaign” for the 2024 elections, in which he will seek immediate re-election.
“I want to ask in public that we investigate everyone who is here,” said the president on a national radio and television network that was called half an hour before the scheduled time and in which his entire cabinet was seen.
Bukele announced that in the next three days he will ask the Legislative Assembly for “license” to participate in the electoral campaign and seek re-election. “As you all know, in approximately three days I will ask the Assembly for a license Legislative to dedicate myself to the campaign and I will not be acting as president,” he said.
In that sense, he indicated that he will “increase oversight of the work of the Government and its portfolios.”
“I’m not going to do who doesn’t steal, but surrounded himself with thieves (…) I want to say it here to everyone’s face, do not ask me to be an accomplice in something illegal because I am not going to do it,” said Bukele.
(Also read: Bukele leads presidential acceptance survey: what place did Petro occupy?)
The president told his officials that “do not think that there will be no supervision, but there will be much more supervision. “Everyone will be the owner of their data and everyone knows that their actions have consequences.”
Bukele told his officials that there are only “two people who are going to the election, the vice president and I,” so “everyone here will always continue working 24/7 and give their best.”
Nayib Bukele asks the Attorney General’s Office to investigate his entire executive cabinet: “I am not going to be the President who did not steal, but surrounded himself with thieves. I want them to remember me as the President that he did not steal and that he did not let anyone steal, and whoever he stole he put in jail.” pic.twitter.com/lV3Q7UNL3I
— Captain General of the Tercios (@capTercio) November 29, 2023
He said that “on February 4, the people will decide whether to elect the vice president and myself again, everyone else is not going to the election, no one is going to vote for you.”
And he added: “I hope that many of you can be chosen for the next Government, according to your work and your work.”
“This is the last meeting they have with me as acting president,” he added.
Bukele did not go into details about who will be the person who will remain as acting president, Nor did he indicate whether this Wednesday he will present to Congress the license request in which he requests permission to be absent from office.
(You may be interested in: ‘I have no communication’: Bukele talks about President Petro and sends a message to Colombia)
On Tuesday night, the president of the Legislative Assembly, Ernesto Castro, called the deputies to a plenary session for Wednesday, without indicating the points that will be addressed therein.
The 2024 general elections will represent a “watershed” in the recent political history of El Salvador, for the changes and political “movements” that will allow for the first time, since the country entered its democratic stage, the president to compete for immediate re-election despite the accusations that it is unconstitutional and that he himself maintained.
The path to Bukele’s re-election opened in 2021, when the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court, which had been appointed by the opposition-majority Congress without following the legal procedure, changed a criterion for interpreting the Constitution.
The judges, accused by the United States of being “loyal” to the Bukele Executive, They pointed out that the prohibition of immediate re-election is for a ruler who has been in power for 10 years.
(Also: ‘Thank God we didn’t listen’: Bukele responds to his critics in speech at the UN)
Until before this change, a president had to finish his 5-year term and wait 10 to seek the Presidency again.
This entrepreneur from the millennial generation has the support of 90% of citizens, according to surveys.
Since March 2022, Bukele declared a war against the gangs, with which the country regained tranquility. Protected by an emergency regime that is criticized by humanitarian organizations, the authorities have imprisoned more than 73,000 alleged gang members, but some 7,000 innocent people were released.
EFE and AFP
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