El Salvador’s parliament sacks the country’s top judges
President Nayib Bukele is proving even less of a democrat than his opponents feared
WHEN NAYIB BUKELE’S New Ideas (NI) party won a sweeping majority in El Salvador’s elections in February, fans of democracy held their breath. Mr Bukele, who with a 90% approval rating is the most popular president in Latin America, has shown little regard for checks and balances since he came to power in 2019. On May 1st, the day new lawmakers first took their seats in the legislative assembly, fears about the 39-year-old president appeared well founded. The assembly promptly voted to sack the attorney-general and the five judges who sit in the constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court, which oversees most laws. Mr Bukele crowed on Twitter: “And the Salvadorean people, through their representatives, said ‘DISMISSED!’”
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Bukele’s bulldozer”
From the May 8th 2021 edition
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