Nayib Bukele retires a third of El Salvador's 690 judges

FILE PHOTO: El Salvador President Nayib Bukele speaks during a news conference in San Salvador, El Salvador, June 6, 2021. REUTERS / Jose Cabezas / File PhotoJOSE CABEZAS / Reuters

The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador, controlled mainly by President Nayib Bukele, has consummated a controversial reform of the Judicial Career Law that automatically retires a third of the country's 690 judges and dozens of prosecutors.

The main argument of the President of Parliament, Ernesto Castro, was that of "no more corrupt judges and justice tailored to power groups."

The provision affects judges who are over 60 years of age or who have completed 30 years of service.

Among those dismissed is Jorge Guzmán, the judge in charge of the

El Mozote case

, a massacre in which at least 1,000 civilians were killed in 1980. In November 2020, Guzmán asked the Prosecutor's Office to determine whether Bukele committed any crime after the blocking of judicial inspections in various military units, incurring in alleged "breach of duties, disobedience, concealment of documents and concealment."

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The case of Guzmán condenses what those of Bukele raise.

"For those that the regime or any of its officials consider enemies, there is no escape,"

El Faro

stated in an editorial

.

“Anyone is now subject to judicial persecution, without the right to due process;

no defense possible.

There is no longer judicial independence, no constitutional guarantees or judicial remedies.

There is no longer the rule of law.

For the friends of the regime, on the other hand, there is no longer any fear that their crimes will be punished ”.

After approval by Parliament, the Chamber magistrates, first instance judges and justices of the peace rejected the reform of the Law on the Judicial Career and the debates prior to its approval "for being offensive and unworthy of judicial investiture."

The Chamber alleges that Parliament does not have the power to reform the Judicial Career Law, therefore what was done by the legislators of the ruling New Ideas bench (with the complicity of the Gana, PDC and PCN parties) is spurious.

"With these reforms judicial independence in the country is violated, and constitutional rights such as the right to work, job security, equality, human dignity, due process and legal security are violated," they stated in a statement.

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The Salvadoran Judicial Employees Union also disapproved of the reforms and argued that the ruling party intends to “deceive the people by saying that they are doing it because the people requested the purging of the Judicial Branch. The law already established mechanisms to punish judges who act outside the law, ”insisted the union leaders.

The reforms approved this Tuesday are not "surprising", according to the

El Faro

editorial

, since the steamroller headed by Bukele had already threatened "judges with suffering consequences if they do not resolve in a certain way." “And they accuse them of favoring the interests of 'benefactors' when they judge against the will of Bukele and his group. Therefore, the objective of the reform approved with a waiver of procedure is not a secret, ”warned the publication, constantly attacked and vilified by the ruling party for its journalistic investigations, as the most recent evidence of how the Government negotiated with the gangs and tried to erase the evidence with the new prosecutor appointed by the legislature, Rodolfo Delgado.

The reform of the Law on the Judicial Career was introduced to the plenary session on Tuesday with exemption from processing by a legislator from the ruling party New Ideas and was approved without further parliamentary debate with 63 votes from 84 deputies.

Bukele loyalists will name substitutes

In addition to the purge of judicial offices, the approved reforms include one that authorizes the Court to “take the pertinent measures to cover the judicial seats that remain vacant”, and to “verify” that the provisions are complied with.

Another reform enables the Court to make "transfers and corresponding, necessary and indispensable appointments in the seats that remain vacant so that access to justice is not altered."

The Full Court and the Attorney General report directly to President Bukele and are the ones who will appoint the substitutes for the defenestrated judges and prosecutors. This new blow to judicial independence is in addition to what was executed on May 1, when the deputies irregularly dismissed the magistrates of the Constitutional Chamber and the attorney general.

"This was an expected step (removal of judges) in the process of dismantling democracy and concentration of power, which the group that governs today began the same day that Nayib Bukele took office as President of the Republic," he remarked.

The Lighthouse

.

“It is a group that has intolerance as an ideology, authoritarianism as an ideal, propaganda as a strategy and corruption as its exclusive exercise.

These reforms signify an advance on the path towards their objectives, which are, in short, to put an end to our democratic era ”.

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