Central America: The United States sanctions five Salvadoran judges and the Guatemalan attorney general for being corrupt | International

On Monday, US diplomacy has included five magistrates from El Salvador on its list of corrupt personalities for “undermining democracy” and “interpreting the Constitution” so that President Nayib Bukele can stand for re-election “and the current attorney general of Guatemala and the Secretary General of the Public Ministry for “obstructing investigations into acts of corruption.” The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, advanced the news via Twitter.

Later, through a statement, Blinken declared that “the United States will continue to use the tools at its disposal” to promote accountability for the attacks on the democratic aspirations of the peoples of Central America. ” Among the measures that the inclusion of corrupt personalities on that list entails is the veto of entry into the US Blinken remarked that the United States remains “committed to supporting the strengthening of democracy, the rule of law and responsibility, keys to a better future ”in Central America.

The US embassy in San Salvador published a complete statement in Spanish detailing that “Elsy Dueñas De Avilés, Óscar Alberto López Jerez, Héctor Nahún Martínez García, José Ángel Peréz Chacón and Luis Javier Suárez Magaña, current magistrates of the Sala de lo Constitutional law of the Supreme Court of Justice, “undermined democratic processes by approving a controversial interpretation of the Constitution that authorizes the reelection of the president despite an express prohibition in the Magna Carta that prohibited consecutive terms of the Presidency.”

The State Department states that the five magistrates, from today “corrupt and undemocratic actors”, were appointed by the Legislative Assembly that took office on May 1, after the abrupt dismissal “without a legitimate cause” of their predecessors in office and in “A process” that seems “unconstitutional”. On September 3, those five new judges interpreted an article of the Constitution so that Bukele can run for immediate reelection in 2024.

This Monday, in his Twitter biography, Bukele, 40 years old and in power since 2019, defined himself as “dictator”, in the midst of a political storm of accusations, both inside and outside the country, of his concentration of power, an attitude that has made the Joe Biden Administration lose patience.

Bukele used irony to, through Twitter, declare that it was clear that “the list has NOTHING to do with ‘corruption’, but is pure politics and interference of the lowest.” The president, who knew how to channel citizen discontent over the traditional parties that ruled for three decades, continued in his mocking tone writing that “it is strange that NO ONE from the opposition is mentioned. Maybe because of little angels ”. “Again, NO ONE from the Government of Honduras is coming. How strange ”, writes Bukele next to an emoticon with a pensive face.

In addition to the five Salvadoran judges, the United States considers corrupt, and prohibits entry into the country, the attorney general of Guatemala, Consuelo Porras, and the secretary general of the Public Ministry, Ángel Arnoldo Pineda Ávila. For Blinken, Porras “obstructed investigations into acts of corruption by interfering in criminal investigations in order to protect his political allies and obtain personal political favor.” Joe Biden’s Secretary of State accused the attorney general of “actively undermining the investigations carried out by the Special Prosecutor Against Impunity, including the dismissal of its main prosecutor, Juan Francisco Sandoval.”

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