Re-election, a suit tailored to some Latin American leaders

The recent reelection of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador is the most recent case of Latin American leaders who have changed the laws or have controversially interpreted the existing ones in order to run for reelection in the last twenty years.

In most cases, these decisions have generated significant debates about democracy, alternation in power and the consolidation of authoritarian leadership in the region.

Chávez amended the Constitution of Venezuela

In 2007, Hugo Chávez proposed reforming the Constitution to extend the presidential term from six to seven years and allow continuous re-election, but the idea was rejected in a popular consultation.

After that, in 2009 he promoted a constitutional amendment that was approved and that kept the presidential term in one six-year term, but also gave the green light for other elected positions to be re-electable, such as mayors, governors and deputies.

According to critics, Chávez violated the Constitution by submitting the same issue to a referendum twice within the same presidential term, in reference to constitutional article 74, which states: “No more than one abrogatory referendum may be held in a constitutional period for the same matter.” ”.

Nicolás Maduro has continued in power under the same legal framework.

Evo Morales relied on the Constitutional Court

Evo Morales held a referendum in 2016 to modify the Constitution and eliminate term limits, but the proposal was rejected.

However, in 2017, Bolivia’s Constitutional Court ruled that term limits violated human rights, allowing Morales to run for a fourth term in 2019. This decision was highly controversial and contributed to the political crisis that led to his resignation in 2019.

Ortega’s legal maneuvers to perpetuate himself in power

Daniel Ortega, through legal maneuvers and judicial decisions, eliminated term limits, which has allowed him to be re-elected several times since 2007.

The Sandinista leader, who returned to power in 2007 after having won the November 2006 elections with 38% of the votes against two divided liberal conservative forces, paved his way to re-election thanks to a legal maneuver with which he circumvented the constitutional norm that stood between him and his goal of staying in power for five more years.

The Sandinista judges of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, without the presence of opposition judges, declared in October 2009 inapplicable the article of the Magna Carta that prevented the continuous re-election of the president and limited his number of terms to two.

In the 2011 elections, despite the fact that the Constitution expressly prohibited it, Ortega ran as a candidate for the Presidency, which he won with 62.45% of the votes on an election day plagued by complaints of irregularities.

In 2014, the National Assembly (Parliament), with a Sandinista majority, modified the Constitution and established indefinite presidential reelection and the possibility of electing the president in the first round and with a simple majority of votes.

Ortega, 78 years old, has remained in power since 2007, after coordinating a Government Junta from 1979 to 1985, and presiding over Nicaragua for the first time from 1985 to 1990.

Ecuador reversed the indefinite reelection promoted by Correa

Rafael Correa promoted a constitutional amendment in 2015 that allowed indefinite reelection. Although it would initially apply to future elections, allowing him to participate in 2021, this amendment was later repealed, and limits on re-election were restored.

Indeed, Correa won the 2007 elections under the 1998 Constitution (which did not allow immediate reelection) and promoted the current 2008 Constitution that allows only one reelection.

With this he set his election counter to zero, and he was elected again in 2009 and re-elected in 2013. He then promoted the amendment that approved indefinite reelection, which could no longer be applied for the 2017 elections, in which the candidate It was Lenín Moreno.

This amendment was later repealed in a referendum promoted by Lenín Moreno, when he had already rebelled against his predecessor. Correa’s idea was to return to power in 2021 with indefinite re-election already in force.

Fujimori “reset” the re-election counter in Peru

Alberto Fujimori won the elections in 1990 under the 1979 Constitution (which did not allow immediate re-election) and took advantage of the fact that in 1993 he made a new Constitution to “set to zero” also your election counter through the Authentic Interpretation Act.

The 1993 Constitution initially contemplated an immediate re-election (currently it does not allow it), so Fujimori was elected president for the second time in 1995 and for the third time in 2000, but he resigned shortly after the scandal of the so-called “Vladivídeos”, the audiovisual record of the illegal deals during the Fujimori Government.

The Honduran Supreme Court extended Hernández’s mandate

In Honduras, presidential reelection is not allowed, under any form, but in 2015 an interpretation by the Supreme Court of Justice gave Juan Orlando Hernández free rein to seek reelection.

In the November 2017 elections there was fraud, according to the opposition parties, and the political crisis that the country was experiencing since the June 28, 2009 coup d’état against then-president Manuel Zelaya worsened.

Uribe saw his desire for a third term frustrated

In Colombia, Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010) achieved a constitutional modification that allowed him to run and be re-elected for a second presidential term. However, the attempt at a second re-election was finally blocked by the Constitutional Court in 2010.

In 2005, Uribe managed to approve immediate presidential re-election, something that was not contemplated by the Colombian Constitution and which allowed him to be in power for two consecutive terms.

Uribe’s re-election in 2006 led to one of the country’s biggest political corruption scandals known as ‘Yidispolitics’, since Congresswoman Yidis Medina was at the center of the plot.

In 2008 Medina, who was a representative of the House, admitted that he received bribes from government officials in exchange for his favorable vote on the constitutional reform project that allowed Uribe to seek a second presidential term.

After the investigations, in 2015, the Supreme Court of Justice also found guilty and sentenced former ministers Diego Palacio and Sabas Pretelt de la Vega to six years in prison. The secretary of the presidency Alberto Velásquez was also sanctioned.

Former congressmen Teodolindo Avendaño and Iván Díaz Mateus were also convicted by decision of the Supreme Court of Justice.

The last president who managed to be re-elected was Juan Manuel Santos, who governed between 2010 and 2018, but once he won his second term he promoted a constitutional reform that ended with immediate presidential re-election in 2015.