San Salvador, El Salvador — On Wednesday, the legislative body of El Salvador endorsed a reform to the constitution that streamlines the process for future amendments, a move that opponents argue will enable President Nayib Bukele and his political party to consolidate their hold on power further.
Previously, the process to amend the constitution required proposals to be initiated and approved by one congress session and then ratified by the succeeding congress following elections. The latter stage was fulfilled on Wednesday, as the proposed changes were initially sanctioned by the previous legislative body last April.
This new framework allows constitutional reforms to be enacted with a simple majority of three-quarters of the legislators. Bukele’s New Ideas party currently holds 54 seats in the 60-member unicameral Congress, along with the support of three additional allies.
Christian Guevara, the leader of the New Ideas party in Congress, indicated that this new expedited process might be utilized to abolish the public funding of political campaigns. Currently, political parties receive government funding based on their electoral vote counts, however, if their votes do not meet expectations, they must return any advanced funds.
Opposition representative Cesia Rivas, from the Vamos party, criticized this plan to eliminate public financing as a means to centralize power further, framing it as a dangerous precedent.
Eduardo Escobar, head of the civic organization Citizen Action, expressed concerns about the broader implications of this reform, stating that it opens up the potential for amendments to any part of the constitution due to the substantial dominance of the New Ideas party in Congress.
Additionally, lawmakers chose to extend a state of emergency that has been in effect for almost three years, which temporarily suspends fundamental rights, such as the right to legal counsel and mandates for police to clarify the reasons behind arrests, in an effort to maintain the government’s crackdown on gang violence for an additional month.
Furthermore, the legislature approved a measure that makes it optional for businesses to accept cryptocurrency, a modification that aligns with a request from the International Monetary Fund. El Salvador had previously recognized bitcoin as legal tender alongside the U.S. dollar in 2021 at Bukele’s behest.
Bukele has sought to establish himself as a partner to former U.S. President Donald Trump. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to visit El Salvador next week as part of a tour through Central America.
