Bukele first arrived as president in the village of El Mozote on December 17, 2020, where he gave a speech of confrontation and attacks against human rights defenders, among these morals. He said this in an interview with EFE.
The President of El Salvador, Here’s how to look, has adopted a very traditional governmental position, similar to that of previous governments, of obstructing investigations into crimes against humanity committed in the civil war (1980-1992), of favoring and covering those responsible for these events, he told Efe . former lawyer David Morales.
Morales, who headed the Office for the Defense of Human Rights (PDDH) (2013-2016), considered that Bukele “strengthens military power”, which means a setback in human rights.
The former prosecutor regretted that, for example, in the criminal case of the El Mozote massacre (1981), committed by the army, the president, also commander of the armed forces, obstructed legal proceedings, such as the delivery of files related to the massacre.
Read also: “The victims (of El Mozote) deserve much more from their government,” says the US congressman.
Cover and protect war criminals
For Morales, it is clear that after the armed conflict, all senior commanders (commanders) of the armed forces in El Salvador “had a clear political position to cover serious human rights violations that members and senior officials planned, monitored, promoted , they tolerated and covered ”.
However, the Bukele Executive had the opportunity to offer a generational change and to “change this situation”, but instead adopted this position to favor war criminals.
“This government had the opportunity to be the first government to offer a generational change, because both the president and the defense minister (Rene Merino Monroy) were no longer direct actors in the war. However, they have taken this position, there is no legal justification for it, on the contrary it violates international and national law, “he said.
The former prosecutor stressed that “the institutional reality in El Salvador is that of a civilian power that has not come beyond military power. In other words, a military power that continues to weigh and that even at this moment is being promoted by President Bukele ”.
He regretted that the Legislative Assembly and the Prosecutor’s Office, which he classified as a passive entity in the investigation of war crimes, joined in with impunity and denied victims justice, reparation and truth.
“There is still an attitude of tolerance towards war criminals from the Prosecutor’s Office, from an institutional point of view, although a small team tries to make efforts without too much support within the Prosecutor’s Office (…) this is the strongest state of impunity from the (American) continent, ”he said.
An electoral political event in El Mozote
Bukele first became president of the village of El Mozote on December 17, 2020, and his agenda did not include a visit to the victims’ monument in the massacre area, but a speech of confrontation and attacks on human rights defenders, including Morale .
Also: “The war was a farce. Like peace agreements. ” Bukele visits El Mozote, the city whose refusal to clarify the massacre
That day, Bukele accused the opposition National Liberation Front Farabundo Martí (FMLN), Human Rights Ombudsman José Apolonio Tobar and Morales of using the massacre for economic and political purposes.
“It was a presidential activity, I think, unfortunate. It did not have any characteristic of a reparative state act for victims, on the contrary, it was an act that constituted a crime, a revictimizing act for various reasons “, said the former lawyer.
The lawyer also pointed out that the massacre affected many communities (at least five), in addition to the populations, victims and relatives not only in the area but also in other parts of the country, therefore the act was not even representative for all the victims of the case “, he underlined.
Bukele during his visit to the village of El Mozote, where he gave a confrontational speech and called the Peace Accords a “farce.”
Morales regretted that Bukele was engaged in personal attacks against human rights defenders, against the PDDH institutionalization, “I think this follows a trend, a narrative that characterized him by attacks on journalists and defenders who in one way or another denounced or revealed abuses of power by them or the government, “he said.
Facing peace agreements
On that day, Bukele also stressed that the Peace Accords, which ended twelve years of war, are a “prank” just like the internal armed conflict.
“It is also unfortunate that, as in the governments of the 1990s and 2000s, it fell into denial of history, saying on this occasion that the war itself and the peace agreements were a farce, it is also a false discourse that it is it is important to demystify its content “, Morales expressed.
The former prosecutor general stressed that “the peace agreements have given a historic course, a profound change, at least in the institutional framework of the state and stopped a 12-year war, all the changes since then and, although we have an imperfect society, the agreements have such a historical dimension that they are on any president ”.
“Peace agreements have a historical dimension to any individual official and it is impossible for a single president to even tarnish peace agreements,” he said.
He stated that “what really affected President Bukele in his speech was the history of the communities that received him, these communities that suffered in their own flesh many massacres, enforced disappearances, illegal executions, bombings, suffered during the war, they went into exile and lived as refugees in the border area of Honduras ”.
For Morales, “it is now very clear that it is a very traditional government position, similar to that of previous governments to obstruct investigations, which now backs down even more by aggravating victims, distorting dialogue with the community for reparations, protecting war criminals and attacking the victims’ representatives ”.