Hundreds of supporters of Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele heeded his call to converge on the country’s parliament on Sunday after lawmakers refused to gather to vote on a US$109 million loan to better equip the country’s security forces, sharply increasing tensions between Bukele and the opposition-controlled legislature.
Top commanders of the country’s police and military have expressed allegiance to the president while positioning heavily armed security forces around and inside the legislative building.
Bukele gave an emotional speech to his supporters, who had threatened to remove opposition lawmakers from the legislature by force.
However, he said that after praying amid soldiers and police, he decided to ask for patience from his supporters and set a deadline of one week for lawmakers to approve the bill.
“If we wanted to press the button, we would press the button” and remove lawmakers from the legislature, he told supporters outside the building. “But I asked God and God told me: Patience, patience, patience. On February 28 [next year] all these scoundrels are heading out the door outside.”
El Salvador holds municipal and legislative elections on Feb. 21 next year.
Opposition legislators have said that they want more details on the spending plan before being called to a vote.
The opposition FMLN party accused Bukele of intimidation and acting like “a dictatorship” for trying to force approval of the loan.
Bukele’s administration has said it would use the funds to purchase a helicopter, police vehicles, uniforms, night vision goggles and other equipment, including a video surveillance system in a country plagued by gangs and high crime.
It has also said that Cabinet members have explained the plans and that they are willing to give more details to legislators.
Bukele took office in June last year with broad popular support. Voters saw the businessman as an outsider who could modernize the country and upset the status quo.
Addressing his supporters, Bukele said polls suggest his New Ideas party would win a majority in the new legislature in next year’s vote, so there is no need for them to break into it by force now.
“If these scoundrels do not approve [the loan for] the Territorial Control Plan, we will summon them here on Sunday,” he said.
Citing El Salvador’s constitution, Bukele’s government had called an extraordinary meeting of the legislative assembly to debate approval of the loan, but lawmakers rejected the call, saying it was inadmissible.
In response, Bukele invoked article 87 of the charter that recognizes the people’s right to insurrection “for the sole purpose of restoring the constitutional order” and summoned his supporters to the legislature.
The government deployed the police and the military, and since Saturday they have cordoned off the area around the legislative building.
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