This week's news from El Salvador

Measures the Legislative Assembly passed for Nayib Bukele

On January 29, El Salvador's Legislative Assembly gave the second vote to adopt a constitutional amendment to allow the Constitution to be amended in future by a single supermajority vote by the legislature.  Up until now, amendments had to be approved by two successive legislatures with a national election in between. That requirement gave the public the chance to vote out of office legislators who supported an amendment before they had a chance to give it final approval in the next term.  Since Bukele's Nuevas Ideas party today possesses such a supermajority in the congress, he can now amend the Constitution anytime he wants by submitting it to a single vote in his rubber stamp legislature. For example, those pesky provisions, that limit how long a president can serve in office, can be eliminated with a quick vote and no debate.

The constitutional amendment passed with no prior announcement that it would be on the day's agenda for the Assembly and passed with less than an hour of debate.

In other actions, the Legislative Assembly rubber stamped the 47th extension of the State of Exception with its elimination of due process protections for Salvadorans and permission for intercepting communications without the need for a judicial order.

The Legislative Assembly also modified the Bitcoin law so that the cryptocurrency is no longer legal tender. With the revised law, no one is required to accept bitcoin in payment and taxes will not be paid in bitcoin. This change was required for the International Monetary Fund to approve a $1.4 billion loan to the country.

To be sure, the government never enforced the 2021 Bitcoin Law's requirement that everyone accept BTC as payment in any economic transaction. It was Bukele's most unpopular initiative in first term as president.

El Salvador to assist Trump with his deportation plans.

Trump advisor Stephen Miller told the press that Nayib Bukele is offering “tremendous levels of cooperation” to US in connection with Trump’s deportation plans.  Miller's comments came after Trump and Bukele spoke by phone on January 23.

According to news reports, El Salvador is willing to sign a "safe third country" agreement with the US, which would allow the US to expel asylum seekers from various countries with instructions that they should seek asylum in El Salvador instead. A similar agreement was signed during the first Trump administration, but was never put into action.

 
The new US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, will be making a trip to El Salvador and the rest of Central America beginning this weekend. The safe third country agreement might be signed then. In addition, the administration is saying that the US could deport Venezuelan "Tren de Aragua" gang members to El Salvador so that Bukele can lock them up in his CECOT mega-prison.

It is the two year anniversary of the CECOT mega-prison, which the Bukele media machine is celebrating with images like this:




Activism against metallic mining continues

There are ongoing protest marches and activities in El Salvador decrying Nayib Bukele's decision to repeal the country's prohibition on metallic mining.   In particular this week, activists are demonstrating against the attorney general's decision to re-try the Santa Marta 5 next week on trumped up charges despite their acquittal last year. The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders has said she will be monitoring this new trial of the environmental activists.