President Nayib Bukele during a ceremony for the bicentennial of El Salvador's independence, on September 15 in San Salvador. PRESS SECRETARY OF THE PRESI / Reuters
Nayib Bukele has slammed the door on the struggle of women to achieve the legalization of abortion in El Salvador, a country with one of the toughest laws on the subject in the world.
The president has reported that he withdrew from a constitutional reform proposal to be discussed by the Legislative Assembly - which he controls - the possibility of legalizing therapeutic abortion, euthanasia and equal marriage, one of the struggles that collective groups have maintained for decades. feminists and LGBTI in the Central American country.
"I have decided, so that there is no doubt, not to propose any type of reform to any article that has to do with the right to life, marriage or euthanasia," the president reported this Friday.
THE SAVIOR
A group of UN experts asks El Salvador to release three women imprisoned for aborting
El Salvador's Parliament files a proposal to decriminalize abortion
Bukele accused the opposition of "spreading rumors and a dirty campaign" on constitutional reform.
According to the president, it was his opponents who spread the idea that an openly progressive agenda was included in the document prepared by the government.
"You have known me for many years and you know that I would not propose any of those things, no matter how much international pressure I may have," said the president, referring to international organizations, such as the United Nations, which have his country in their sights. for its harsh laws against women who abort.
A group of UN experts last year asked the government to release three women who were imprisoned for suffering obstetric emergencies during pregnancy that resulted in miscarriages. The agency considered them as “arbitrary detentions” and demanded that the Salvadoran authorities compensate them for the damage caused and that they order a thorough and independent investigation of the detentions to punish those responsible.
Bukele has defended the constitutional reform proposal that he will send to the Parliament of his country, stating that it is a text that guarantees essential rights for Salvadorans, such as access to basic services, but also to the internet, financial inclusion and decent pensions. "A Constitution that obliges future governments to invest in health, education, technology, that can protect our forests," said the president. His detractors accused him of wanting to impose a constitutional reform to be re-elected, but the Constitutional Chamber, which he installed last, in early September authorized his immediate re-election, prohibited by the current Constitution.
After learning the president's position on abortion, equal marriage and euthanasia, human rights activists reacted against his decision. "Given the context of serious setbacks and attacks on institutions and the rule of law led by President Nayib Bukele, this new attack against human rights is not surprising," Erika Guevara-Rosas, director for the Americas, told EL PAÍS of Amnesty International. “In a country where women and girls have faced one of the most extreme forms of discrimination and gender violence, with the total prohibition of abortion, closing the possibility of a reform, perpetuating human rights violations against women, girls and people with the capacity to gestate, condemning them to the eminent risks against their lives, their health and freedom. In addition,with the very high rates of discrimination and violence against LGBTIQ + people, avoiding the recognition of a basic right, such as equality before the law, which includes equal marriage, Bukele sends a nefarious message of conservative backwardness in the face of the demand for rights " , the activist explained.
Join EL PAÍS now to follow all the news and read without limits
Subscribe here
José Miguel Vivanco, director of Human Rights Watch, spoke in the same way, for whom “Bukele cultivates an image of himself as a youthful and modern leader in tune with the current needs of the country.
However, his statements on abortion (in a country where it is prohibited even if the life of the mother is in danger or if the woman is a victim of rape) and equal marriage, show, once again, that we are before a retrograde politician and authoritarian who despises human rights and democratic values, ”said Vivanco.
Follow all the international information on
and
, or in
our weekly newsletter
.