El Diario de Hoy gives a brief overview of the blows the country has received due to exogenous factors and the actions of the Government.
The recent year has been a particularly difficult one for hundreds of thousands of people. On the one hand, the COVID-19 pandemic took the lives of thousands of Salvadorans and severely affected many others who suffered the effects of the disease.
Similarly, isolation and closure measures have led to the closure of businesses and the loss of thousands of jobs, which has pushed many Salvadorans to vulnerability and poverty.
El Salvador reports nine more deaths due to COVID-19, bringing the total to 1,336
Another point not to be neglected is the way in which the citizens saw that their “normality” disappears: due to the high transmissibility of the coronavirus, the Salvadorans had to live a long closure, some could not see their relatives and, in the worst case, , could not say goodbye to those who lost their lives because of this disease or other causes.
In short, two days ago closed one of the most complicated years in recent history. Unfortunately, not only these exogenous factors marked the difficult 2020.
Pollution of dialogue
Some countries in the world are moving forward because of their governments, and others, unfortunately, are looking to move forward despite what the authorities are doing and deciding.
In 2020, El Salvador seemed to belong to the second group. In addition to the harsh economic and social situation, Nayib Bukele’s government has contributed to complicating the national landscape.
US lawmakers criticize Bukele for “deviating” from democracy
The first point, which may seem subtle but is very harmful to the country, is the contamination of political dialogue.
Through the president’s personal networks, his propaganda apparatus and the aggression of some of his officials and fanatics, a systematic attack was launched against opponents and critics of the government throughout the year.
Although Nayib Bukele seems to have a broad base of economic support, it is difficult to try to govern a country by turning its back, perhaps attacking, on those who have criticism or doubts about the government.
This became particularly serious at a time when the country had to make difficult decisions to deal with the pandemic. Far from dialogue with political forces and finding difficult solutions by consensus, the president has chosen to take unilateral decisions and attack those who, even with the help of the law, oppose these measures.
In the medium and long term, the president breaks down social bridges and makes political differences between Salvadorans another factor of division and perhaps hate speech. For a country with a chronic history of violence, it is extremely dangerous to understand your opponent as an enemy worthy of elimination.
Bukele against the Chamber: “If I were a dictator, I would have shot everyone. You save a thousand lives in exchange for five “
In this sense, in 2020 the police and the army were transformed into armed arms of the political intentions of the President of the Republic. They lent themselves to illegal and draconian measures in the pandemic, but also to harassing opponents, such as the fateful February 9, in which the president ordered the armed takeover of the Legislature.
A country where the security forces respond to political whims and not the law is on the verge of massive political persecution, something typical of the worst authoritarianisms.
Beyond this constant division, the government did not engage in dialogue with doctors and scientists to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Far from it, and as the German headline Deutsche Welle headlined in March, Bukele faced a “militarized improvisation” pandemic.
Isolation centers remain a risk of infecting detainees
A clear example was the management of isolation centers, which seemed to move away from the ideal of health and became prisons for those who allegedly violated quarantine, in addition to being centers of contagion and where many died.
El Salvador has also lost the ability to monitor its public officials and how they use public funds, with a systematic breakdown of transparency and accountability instruments. This section highlights the weakening of the Institute for Access to Public Information, which in 8 years has allowed a country to emerge from the shadows of how it uses the resources that everyone contributes.
In the end, the government gave the country debt without concrete execution plans of hundreds of millions of dollars and in opacity. There, they also lose the children and grandchildren of Salvadorans who see their country entering a deep economic and fiscal crisis.
Cases to forget:
Affected political dialogue
The government of Nayib Bukele, through messages from the president himself, his propaganda media and his officials and fanatics, has tried to delegitimize the idea of political opposition, a fundamental pillar of a democracy, and suggests that opponents are enemies to eliminate them. This hatred undermines discussions that require high-level agreements.
Pandemic improvisation
One thing the country missed in 2020 was the opportunity to address the pandemic by listening to doctors and technicians. Rather, the government relied on poorly crafted executive decrees, militarized improvisation, and a president incapable of acknowledging mistakes. These failures would be responsible for thousands of infections and many deaths.
Lack of transparency
While past administrations have been overshadowed by corruption and attempts to hold them accountable, the current government has made significant efforts to keep details of how it spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the pandemic outside the public. It also weakened key institutions to monitor the use of state resources.
He distorted the PNC and the armed forces. AA.
Since the Peace Accords, El Salvador has come a long way in trying to professionalize the security forces. However, Nayib Bukele’s government treated these bodies as the armed arms of the president’s political whims and even disregarded judicial and legislative orders, protected by the president’s support and orders.
Galloping duty
It is natural that during a pandemic, the government seeks much more resources than in a regular period. It is positive that you have room for maneuver to request resources. What is not worth it is to borrow the country, but to execute the funds without planning, with opacity and in many cases giving contracts to relatives, friends and even officials.
Meritocracy, a distant ideal
Nayib Bukele’s government has been full of very expensive officials who do not meet the minimum requirements for their positions or who hold positions created especially for them, without being of greater use. This not only increases the costs of the state, but leaves the most capable in the decision-making process and rewards servility.