(CNN Spanish) - The lack of agreements between the National Assembly and the Executive left El Salvador without US $ 250 million of a loan with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) that would be used to deal with the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus.
Friday was the last day the IDB had given for the ratification of the loan.
The money, according to the government, would be used to help the 262 local governments, micro and small companies, agricultural producers and to attend to the reconstruction and economic recovery.
"The work of two months getting those funds thrown in the trash," President Nayib Bukele lamented on Twitter, after the deputies closed the plenary session this Friday without ratifying the loan.
"The IDB will not give us another loan with a rate of 2.11% and a grace period of five years," said Mario Ponce, president of the Assembly who warned the rest of the deputies that the lack of these resources will have a strong impact on sectors that would benefit and that in the end will have to find new funds.
"Then they complain that the government has to resort to high-interest debt," Bukele said in a tweet.
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Deputies from the conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance party (ARENA) and the opposition Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation (FMLN) asked the government for details of the funds and how they would be used. The Finance Minister, Alejandro Zelaya, met with the deputies at 9pm in a last attempt to reach an agreement.
The deputies wanted to modify amounts and give the Mayor of San Salvador US $ 5 million, because according to statistics from the Ministry of Health, it is the municipality with the highest number of deaths and confirmed cases of the new coronavirus.
However, the government did not agree because it was not possible to modify the destinations and described the deputies' proposal as "blackmail".
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In addition to the lack of agreements for the ratification of the loan, the implementation of a strict quarantine to curb the contagion curve due to covid-19 has been underway for weeks in the Legislative Assembly.
coronavirus