[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 85 (Monday, May 17, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2541-S2542]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              EL SALVADOR

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I want to call attention to recent events 
in El Salvador which have caused international concern, including in 
the U.S. Congress.
  I was a Senator in the 1980s, when social injustices and 
authoritarian regimes in El Salvador led to a brutal civil war that 
lasted 12 years. I traveled there during that period when the United 
States was supporting the Salvador Armed Forces, despite their history 
of corruption and collusion with death squads that carried out 
political assassinations with impunity.
  Finally, in 1992, after tens of thousands of lives lost and 
atrocities including the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero and 
six Jesuit priests and their housekeeper and her daughter by the 
Salvadoran Army, the two sides signed the Peace Accords that ended the 
war. Those Accords failed to solve the country's historical problems, 
and the leaders of the Arena and FMLN parties failed to put 
implementation of the Accords above their own corrupt, political 
ambitions, for which they ultimately lost the support of the Salvadoran 
people. But the Accords did establish the foundation for democracy, 
including a clear separation of powers with checks and balances as well 
as a limited constitutional role for the armed forces and the newly 
formed civilian police to avoid ever again being used for political 
purposes or repression.
  I mention this history and the price in human suffering that was paid 
for the chance to build a peaceful, democratic society in El Salvador, 
at a time when key elements of the Peace Accords are under assault from 
within the government itself and President Nayib Bukele.
  In February 2020, in a show of force designed to intimidate the 
Salvadoran Congress, which at that time his party did not control, 
President Bukele, accompanied by heavily armed soldiers, occupied the 
legislative chamber to demand passage of a law to pay for new 
equipment. Fifteen months later, after winning a supermajority in the 
Congress, he turned his attention to the judicial branch.
  Under the Peace Accords, the Office of the Attorney General, formerly 
an appendage of the Executive that was used for repression and 
persecution of political opponents, became an independent institution, 
acting as a fourth branch of government and appointed by a majority of 
Congress to a 3-year term. Since the Congress is also elected for 3-
year terms, every Congress gets to appoint an Attorney General. The 
President has no say in the matter.
  The Attorney General can be removed by a majority of Congress for 
just cause and in accordance with due process. Attorney General Raul 
Melara's term was to end on January 6, 2022, just 7 months from now, 
and the newly elected Congress could have selected someone to replace 
him after

[[Page S2542]]

that date. However, on May 1, President Bukele's supermajority in 
Congress summarily removed Mr. Melara without cause and appointed a 
political loyalist as Melara's replacement, contrary to the 
requirements of the Constitution and raising serious doubts about the 
continued independence of the office.
  It is notable that prior to his dismissal, the ousted Attorney 
General, with U.S. support, was investigating a number of cases of 
corruption against top government officials, including a multibillion-
dollar money laundering case. Then last week, in what can only be 
interpreted as a flagrant attempt to shield themselves from 
accountability, the Congress passed a law to provide retroactive 
immunity to all government officials implicated in corruption involving 
spending linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. Also last week, the Assistant 
Attorney General in charge of the anti-corruption unit suddenly 
resigned, for reasons that have not been explained, and was also 
replaced by a Bukele loyalist.
  Those actions were just the beginning. El Salvador's Supreme Court 
has 15 justices elected for 9-year terms and distributed among 
different chambers. Every 3 years, Congress can appoint 5 justices from 
a list of 30 candidates submitted by the National Council of the 
Judiciary. The President has no say in the matter.
  Justices can be assigned to and transferred from any chamber, except 
justices in the Constitutional Chamber who are appointed by the 
Congress strictly for that chamber and cannot be transferred. The chief 
justice of the Supreme Court is also selected by Congress from among 
the five members of the Constitutional Chamber.
  The newly elected Congress would have elected five justices from 
different chambers of the Supreme Court in June from the already 
submitted list of candidates. However, on May 1, the Congress removed 
all five justices from the Constitutional Chamber and their 
substitutes, without cause or due process, arguing that their rulings 
were biased and contrary to the government's policies. Out of those 
justices only one would have completed his term in June. The other four 
from the Constitutional Chamber were serving terms until 2029. 
Apparently, the role of the judiciary as a separate branch of 
government that serves as an independent check on Executive power in a 
democracy is unacceptable to President Bukele and his congressional 
allies.
  The Congress appointed new justices but not from a list of candidates 
submitted by the National Council of the Judiciary. So not only was the 
sudden removal of justices unconstitutional; so was the appointment of 
new justices.
  The Constitutional Chamber had played an essential, historical role 
as a check on the Executive's abuse of authority, which is plainly why 
its justices were targeted for removal. The chamber often rebuked the 
Executive for overreaching in its actions, including the Bukele-ordered 
military occupation of the Congress in February 2020. Thus, by removing 
the Attorney General and the Supreme Court justices, the Congress gave 
President Bukele control of all branches of government, creating a 
situation in which corruption can flourish with impunity.
  I have recounted these events because they have created a crisis that 
could have profound consequences for El Salvador, and for U.S.-
Salvadoran relations. My concern is not only what it means for 
democracy in that country but what it could also mean for its economy 
and the livelihoods of its people. The stifling of democracy ultimately 
deprives already desperate people--suffering from the COVID pandemic, 
two hurricanes in 2020, and gang violence--of any hope their lives will 
get better, and this desperation is a major driver of migration to the 
U.S. border.
  The United States has always been El Salvador's largest trading 
partner and its largest donor. CAFTA--the Central America Free Trade 
Agreement--established not only trade preferences but labor, health, 
and environmental standards. The results have been significant.
  Forty-five percent of El Salvador's exports go to the United States 
under CAFTA, which amounts to $2.6 billion a year.
  Thirty-five percent of its imports come from the United States, 
totaling $3.5 billion a year.
  There are nearly 3 million Salvadorans living in the United States, 
of whom 200,000 have temporary protected status. Collectively, they 
send $6 billion each year in remittances to their relatives in El 
Salvador, which amounts to 25 percent of the country's GDP.
  On top of that, the United States has provided El Salvador with more 
than $700 million in aid through USAID, the Millennium Challenge 
Corporation, and other agencies in the last 5 years alone. Much of the 
progress made with those funds is now at risk of being washed away.
  The largest exporters in El Salvador are U.S. corporations, which are 
also the largest employers in El Salvador.
  President Bukele knows that his dictatorial actions are a direct 
challenge to the United States and to the Biden administration's 
emphasis on democracy, human rights, and combating corruption in the 
region. Faced with criticism from the White House and the U.S. 
Congress, he may point to China as an alternative to the United States, 
as if a knight in shining armor from Beijing can gallop in and solve El 
Salvador's problems.
  But the people of El Salvador have no connection with China, and they 
are not about to cast aside their longstanding relationship with the 
United States. Trade with China has always been one-way and 
characterized by dumping practices that have destroyed local industries 
in El Salvador. There are no major exports from El Salvador to China 
except occasional shipments of coffee and sugar. Chinese infrastructure 
projects do nothing to help unemployed Salvadorians, when China sends 
the steel, concrete, and even the Chinese workers to build them.
  The Salvadoran private sector knows that China isn't the answer. They 
know the country cannot prosper without democratic institutions and the 
rule of law.
  El Salvador is a sovereign country, and President Bukele was 
democratically elected. He makes his own decisions. But the choices he 
and his allies in the Salvadoran Congress make, that are eviscerating 
El Salvador's democratic civilian institutions and empowering the armed 
forces, have consequences for U.S.-Salvadoran relations. They have 
consequences for our aid programs and for our support for financing for 
El Salvador from the IMF, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the 
World Bank and for our trade relations, and for visas.
  This isn't about national sovereignty and foreign interference, as 
President Bukele has falsely suggested. His actions directly affect the 
United States, U.S. companies, our commercial relations, and the 
welfare of millions of Salvadorans in the United States, as well as the 
Salvadoran population.
  I join others here and in El Salvador in urging President Bukele and 
the Salvadoran Congress to reconsider their unconstitutional actions 
and to restore the separation of powers and the rule of law. Don't 
destroy the Peace Accords' greatest achievement. End the attacks on the 
rule of law, respect the tenure of other justices and the Human Rights 
Procurator, and appoint justices to the Constitutional Chamber and an 
Attorney General following the established procedures and ensuring that 
they are people with the necessary professional qualifications, 
integrity, and independence.

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