Medical staff: "We work under stress and without sufficient equipment" (July 2020) 2:09
(CNN Spanish) -
The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, and the magistrates of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice are leading a new controversy.
This time due to the government's decision to require all passengers who wish to enter El Salvador, including Salvadorans and residents, a PCR test with a negative result for covid-19, delivered by the laboratory no later than 72 hours before the start of the travel.
The test is a requirement to be able to enter El Salvador by air or land as of this Saturday, September 19, and thus rule out that passengers are carriers of the new coronavirus.
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The government's provision was notified to the airlines through a circular on September 11, but the Constitutional Chamber ordered this Wednesday to suspend the requirement of the test as a requirement to allow entry to Salvadorans and foreigners with permanent residence in El Salvador.
However, hours later, the president warned the airlines that to land in the country they must require all passengers to have a negative test for covid-19.
"Otherwise we will be forced to close the airport again," Bukele warned on his Twitter account.
International flights restart
Starting this Saturday, the San Óscar Arnulfo Romero international airport will begin to receive international flights again to enter and leave El Salvador.
Since its closure on March 18, it has only received humanitarian and cargo flights.
In the ruling, the magistrates consider that the measure of requiring a negative test requires a legal study because it could violate the right to enter the national territory without the Legislative Assembly having approved the implementation of an exception regime to support it.
Therefore, the Chamber issued the precautionary measure in order to preserve the rights until it issues a final ruling.
Bukele, for his part, lashed out at the magistrates and accused them of trying to “dismantle” the government.
“Pretending that legislation should be sought for each government action, it only tries to deny its existence and make it impossible to work and its effectiveness, leaving society without state control.
That is, a society in chaos.
Where everyone does what they consider appropriate, "he wrote in one of several tweets.
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The president questioned that the magistrates issued the precautionary measure in response to a report presented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the repatriation of Salvadorans stranded abroad due to the closure of the airport in the face of the covid-19 emergency.
"This requirement will not last forever, but it will remain in force, until we are sure that we have been able to control the epidemiological curve, with the airport open," Bukele explained in another tweet to justify the decision taken by his government.
The precautionary measure issued by the Chamber was published on Twitter hours after José Miguel Fortín, a psychiatrist, on behalf of some citizen organizations, filed an appeal of unconstitutionality against the government's provision.
According to Fortín, the measure violates article 5 of the Constitution of El Salvador, which establishes that "everyone is free to enter, remain in the territory of the Republic and leave it, except for the limitations established by law," he said in a tweet.
However, Bukele criticized that the Ministry of Health was not consulted by the magistrates to make their assessments.
"His sentence not only has flaws in form, but in substance," he added.
This is not the first time that Bukele ignores the rulings of the Constitutional Chamber.
In April, the president kept the order to detain people who violated the quarantine and send them to containment centers despite a contrary judicial decision.
covid-19