Repression and resilience: Diagnosing closing space mid-pandemic

REPRESSION AND RESILIENCE: DIAGNOSING CLOSING SPACE MID-PANDEMIC
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Annex: Summaries of the country
case studies
El Salvador
Democratic space has increasingly come under attack in El Salvador since the assumption of power by President
Nayib Bukele in 2019. Lacking sufficient legislative leverage to promote his agenda, Bukele’s presidency has so far
been marked by attempts to overrule the Legislative Assembly, as well as a divisive and anti-democratic discursive
strategy. Just before the pandemic outbreak, President Bukele ordered the military to surround the legislative palace
with an ultimatum to approve a substantial increase in resources to implement his Plan for Territorial Control. While
the Legislative Assembly did not accept this demand, the event both exemplified Bukele’s disregard for the separation
of powers and his willingness to involve the military in public decision-making. The tension between the executive,
legislative and judiciary - fuelled by Bukele’s desire to rule by decree - continued to mark the country’s space for
contestation during the pandemic.
Civic space was most gravely affected by the increased role of the armed forces in public security as well as the
militarisation of water, health, food and agricultural policy implementation. The increase of the budget assigned to the
military coincided with a propaganda campaign reinforcing the central role of the military in social life, thus promoting
a militarist culture. Patriotic commemorations, swearing-ins and other public events have been employed to vigorously
project this image. The pandemic further exacerbated this trend, with large-scale arbitrary and illegal detentions of
citizens by the police and armed forces. Massive internment camps called “containment centres” were used to detain
people who allegedly did not follow lockdown rules, exposing them to grave contagion risks in overcrowded facilities.
The judiciary institutions, particularly the Constitutional Court and the Ombudsman for Human Rights, provided an
important counterweight to these excessive measures, putting a legal stop to the presidential rule by decree and
disbanding the containment centres. This was a surprising development because the judiciary was known for its
partiality before the pandemic - but at its onset the courts played an essential role in upholding constitutionalism and
the rule of law. They also strongly counteracted the executive’s attempts to bypass and overrule the judiciary and
legislature. This contrasts with the continued impunity for pre-pandemic crimes and human rights offenses, particularly
the crimes committed against human rights defenders and media actors.
The abuse of state resources and irregularities in procurement processes equally marked the government response
to the pandemic, thereby affecting the space for political opposition and a level playing field. While the Legislative
Assembly tried to oversee and audit procurement processes and crisis expenditures, it lacked the credibility for such
oversight given some of its members’ own track record. In contrast, media oversight and scrutiny of public procurement
was strong, prompting the government to reform the rules for public procurement to evade their obligation to register
and inform the public. Prior to the pandemic, violent attacks against journalists and human rights defenders were
the primary tactic for repressing civic space in El Salvador, further exacerbated by an environment of impunity and
intimidation. While such intimidation and violence against journalists continued during the pandemic, the case study
did not note an increase in violence during this period.