With constitutional texts containing so-called “rock articles” preventing presidential re-election, the Central American region has witnessed events where the will of the people was not heard.
In June 2009, Honduras’ constitutional President, Manuel Zelaya, was removed from power by oligarchy and military violence for sponsoring a referendum to amend articles preventing the continuity of a government.
In 2017, however, Juan Orlando Hernández, currently jailed on drug trafficking charges, became the country’s first president to be re-elected with the support of the military, the oligarchy, and a judicial system accommodating to that wish.
In Zelaya’s case, the Supreme Court found it illegal to call a referendum to allow for a non-immediate presidential re-election.
Honduras is so close to El Salvador that you can touch it, they are border countries and some of them have very similar problems.
With the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, the same scenario does not occur. The president, who was approaching his 42nd birthday, went through scenarios that allowed him to design a framework in which the country’s constitution would be interpreted in different ways by his supporters and opponents.
A press release signed by Samuel Amaya, a young Salvadoran journalist, and published in the Colatino newspaper, entitled “Nayib Bukele ignores the constitution and seeks re-election” touches on one of the issues causing confrontations in the country despite the fact that, according to polls, the overwhelming majority of the population supports the president who is up for re-election.
Bukele will go to the polls even though the constitution prohibits it in at least six articles, the militancy has ratified them, and they could lose their civil rights if the Magna Carta is upheld, Amaya said.
Article 75 of the Constitution stipulates that “those who sign acts, proclamations or accessions promoting or supporting the re-election or continuity of the President of the Republic” lose the right to citizenship.
In addition, Article 88 of the country’s Supreme Law states that “change in the office of President of the Republic is essential to the maintenance of the established form of government and political system.”
Article 154 of the Magna Carta states: “The term of office of the President shall be five years, beginning and ending on June 1st, without the person who has held the Presidency being allowed to remain in office one more day.”
Amaya points out that against all odds, Bukele is seeking re-election, which the ruling party believes is legitimate due to a reinterpretation of a constitutional chamber by the president’s own party.
In El Salvador, unlike what Zelaya wanted to achieve in Honduras, there was no attempt at constitutional reform. Here, political, legislative, and military powers pass by a thread to the Presidential House.
There is no doubt that Bukele and his team have set the rules of the game, and whether or not they are right in their efforts, it will be the sovereign who decides the fate of the country in the elections. The polls speak of a landslide victory. In memory of Saint Thomas the Apostle, seeing is believing.
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