Exceptional regime helps Bukele “catapult” himself to presidential re-election

The exception regime, a controversial measure implemented in The Savior to combat gangs and that suspends some constitutional guarantees, is a political project that “to Bukele “It has helped catapult him to re-election.”Samuel Ramírez, representative of relatives of detainees, said in an interview with EFE.

El Salvador has been under an emergency regime since March 2022, decreed after an escalation of homicides attributed to gangs in the Central American country. This measure has become the main security action of the Government of President Nayib Bukele and its maximum propaganda letter in the face of the presidential elections on February 4.

In these elections, Bukele will seek immediate re-election and, if he wins, he would be the first to repeat the position despite the fact that the Constitution does not allow it.

“If we talk about political, the emergency regime is political, it is not only to combat crime, it is a political project that has helped Bukele catapult himself for re-election. “He knows that the regime has it at a level that can win the elections and that is why he sells it that way.”Ramírez commented.

Ramírez is a former combatant, founder and coordinator of the Movement of Victims of the Regime (Movir), a group that emerged in August 2022 and defends human rights, according to its founder.

Movir has accompanied relatives of people detained in an allegedly arbitrary manner during the emergency measure.

According to official data, since March 2022 there have been more than 75,100 arrests of people accused of being gang members or collaborators, of which more than 7,000 people have been released on parole.

“Bukele already realized that the only work that has worked for him is the regime because what (the rest) he promised in the campaign (for the 2019 elections) has not been fulfilled, such as attracting foreign investment, on the contrary the investment has “has been minimal in this country during this past year.”Ramírez commented.

The founder of Movir said that the current situation in which El Salvador finds itself is “very complex” and “If (Bukele) wins the elections, we think that the regime will continue because it is what has given him the most returns, there is nothing else.”

He also predictsmore persecution and threats of capture. We do not see light in that tunnel, but we believe that denunciation is the only thing that Movir can try to promote with greater force, presence on the street, denunciation in the media and visits to institutions, even if the Government disqualifies the institutions.” , express.

He pointed out that in El Salvador “There is no prevention of violence, everything is jail, repression and persecution” and he emphasized that the exceptional regime “is a letter of introduction that has worked for Bukele worldwide.”

“Bukele is popular around the world for the way he sells the regime and for saying that he has neutralized the gangs, although we know that he has negotiated with them”held.

Furthermore, he commented that the international community “feels afraid to speak out” regarding the emergency regime and “with fear that, if they do, they will be expelled.”

He assured that “There are many people who want the regime, but there is also a clamor from people, who do not express themselves out of fear, who are not very comfortable with the way of governing.”

He questioned the role of the Office of the Attorney General for the Defense of Human Rights (PDDH) for “lack of interest” to investigate arbitrary arrests, judicial processes “rigged” and deaths in prisons in custody.

He pointed out that “all the people who die because of the regime” in prisons, “They die due to lack of medical care, others die because they are murdered, don’t tell me they die from natural death, and we don’t see a public complaint from the PDDH, nor from the presidential commissioner of human rights,” Andrés Guzmán.

The number of prisoners killed in El Salvador in state custody in the context of an emergency regime reached 218, according to the civil organization Socorro Jurídico Humanitario (SJH).

Ramírez recalled that Movir will continue to speak out in favor of the victims, seeking justice and defending human rights and added that “It is not a political movement, we have not received any cent from any party or help from any Government.”