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31 years ago the Peace Accords were signed in Chapultepec, Mexico, ending 12 years of civil war in El Salvador. While Salvadorans commemorated the date, the government of President Bukele continued not to recognize it. Part of the population took advantage of the occasion to express their rejection of the president, whom some accuse of being a “dictator.”
El Salvador fulfilled this Monday, January 16, the signing of the 1992 Peace Accords, which put an end to 12 years of civil war. The conflict pitted the FMLN, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (now an opposition political party), against the government and its US-backed army. It resulted in some 75,000 people dead and 8,000 missing.
In January 2022, the Legislative Assembly approved a decree to recognize January 16 as the National Day of the Victims of the Armed Conflict, but no official event was organized for the occasion. For the fourth consecutive year, the Executive of Nayib Bukele did not commemorate the agreements, which he describes as a “farce”.
According to the country’s vice president, Félix Ulloa, the Peace Accords “ended in a scam” and he does not think “neither that they should be commemorated nor that they should be honored,” as he expressed this Monday in an interview on a local channel.
“The signing of the Peace Accords gave us a lot of hope, a lot of expectation (…) but we were disappointed every year until we reached the sad reality that the people said we have to close this stage, let’s forget that, they cheated us,” he said. the vice president.
Reversal risk
On Sunday, hundreds of Salvadorans demonstrated in the capital, San Salvador, to commemorate the date.
“It is an insult to state that the Peace Accords were a farce when thousands of people died and there is impunity for many cases that occurred,” said Ivania Cruz, spokesperson for the Committee of Families of Political Prisoners of El Salvador.
Karina Sosa, deputy of the Central American Parliament for the FMLN, said on Sunday that they want to “blow away that memory” of the Peace Accords and warned that “they are trying to silence voices” of the opposition and that this is “one of the most clear examples of the setbacks” that, according to her, El Salvador is experiencing.
The general secretary of the FMLN and former vice president, Óscar Ortiz, also warned on Monday of the risks of not recognizing such an agreement.
He stressed that the signing of the peace between the FMLN and the government of the time served to “dismantle the madness” of human rights violations and “give way to hope.”
“If we are not careful (…), El Salvador can go back to the past, it can go back to an authoritarian era, it can consolidate itself as a new country under a dictatorship,” Ortiz said.
“I don’t think that in the country we have to return to a state of persecution, repression, militarization, where censorship is again imposed and voices silenced,” he said.
The #Peace Agreements They are one of the most important historical landmarks in the country’s history.
That is why we reject the attempts to erase this historic victory, which is mainly the result of the struggle of the Salvadoran people. pic.twitter.com/tXK0rfslAE—Oscar Ortiz (@oscarortizsv) January 16, 2023
This commemoration took place while the country has been under an emergency regime since the end of March with the excuse of fighting the gangs.
They point to Bukele as a “dictator”
On Sunday, protesters expressed their rejection of Bukele, whom they called a “dictator.” They also spoke out against his re-election, since he announced that he will seek her in the 2024 elections.
Since March 2022, the government has started a war against the gangs and especially the Mara Salvatrucha 13. Through a state of emergency that has been extended several times, Bukele brought thousands of soldiers and police onto the streets to carry out massive captures. .
Reynaldo Santos, a protester, whose 20-year-old son was captured on December 20, participated in the march “because of the injustices that are taking place, above all because of the arrests of innocent people with no criminal records,” stressing that “they are greatly violating the rights of innocent people”.
According to the Government, under the emergency regime, more than 61,300 alleged gang members have been detained, but more than 3,300 people have been released by order of the Prosecutor’s Office and the courts. But the arrests take place without guarantees and there would be close to 6,000 innocent people in prison.
However, Bukele’s popularity remains exceptionally high. According to the last barometer of December 2022, the president had an approval rating of 87.8%. These figures can be explained by the historical rejection of the population towards these extremely violent groups that have caused thousands of murders over the last three decades.
The president could easily achieve victory in the next elections despite the fact that until last year the country prohibited running for a second term. However, the Supreme Court, whose judges were appointed by Bukele’s allies in Congress, allowed Bukele to seek his re-election.
with EFE
