An unprecedented fact since the end of the civil war in 1992 in the Salavador. Heavily armed soldiers and police broke into parliament on Sunday, February 9, illustrating the extreme tension between MPs and President Nayib Bukele. The latter summoned the parliamentarians to approve a loan to equip the armed forces within a week.
The executive and deputies have been at loggerheads for several days around this $ 109 million loan to equip the armed forces to fight against the "maras", the Salvadoran gangs.
Nayib Bukele, who had demanded that the Assembly sit in extraordinary session this weekend to approve the project, broke into the parliamentary precinct, invested by soldiers equipped with rifles and bullet-proof vests.
Concern in the region and beyond
"If these good-for-nothing people do not approve of the territorial control project this week, we will ask them to sit again next Sunday," Nayib Bukele told his supporters, just before entering Parliament and going up to the rostrum briefly .
Since coming to power in June 2019, Nayib Bukele has governed with a minority in Parliament.
The appearance of the military in the parliament has raised concern in the region and beyond. "The police and military deployment in the Legislative Assembly reminds us of the darkest times in the history of El Salvador," Amnesty International said on Twitter.
El Salvador (nearly 6.5 million inhabitants) is one of the most dangerous countries in the world, outside of an armed conflict zone, with an annual rate of 35.6 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2019, for the most part in connection with the criminal activity of the "maras".
With AFP
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