EL SALVADOR: New supreme court appointments raise eyebrows
Thank you for reading LatinNews' chosen article from the Security & Strategic Review - November 2024
Guatemala is not the only country to have recently picked new supreme court (CSJ) justices. In late September El Salvador’s 60-member unicameral legislature, which took up its seats in May, chose seven new magistrates for the country’s 15-member CSJ. As in Guatemala, the appointments are unlikely to assuage fears regarding the independence of the judiciary. Those fears have intensified amid the democratic backsliding which has ensued under authoritarian populist President Nayib Bukele, who first took office in 2019.
The process of dismantling democratic institutions has intensified since the February 2021 legislative elections which produced an unprecedented two-thirds majority for Bukele’s personalist party Nuevas Ideas (NI) – which then further consolidated its control of the legislature in the February 2024 contest [SSR-24-03]. Upon taking up its seats in May 2021, the legislature sparked a judicial crisis after it swiftly dismissed the attorney general, Raúl?Melara (2019-2021), along with all five members of the CSJ’s constitutional chamber (SC) – all of whom had shown their readiness to hold Bukele to account – and replaced them with Bukele loyalists [SSR-21-06]. In June 2021 the legislative assembly also appointed five additional justices, which is in violation of the constitution. This states that justices are elected for nine-year terms and are renewed by thirds every three years (meaning that each time the legislature changes, every three years, the law allows the newly constituted body to appoint five of the 15 justices). The additional five appointments in June 2021 however meant that at that point, the new NI-controlled legislature had already appointed ten.
The seven new CSJ justices selected on 23 September by the NI-controlled legislature include five who will serve from 2024-2033. Two were also appointed to serve out the terms until 2030 of a justice who died last year (Miguel ángel Flores Durel), and one who quit in 2022 (Enrique Portillo Pe?a).
The latest court appointments are unlikely to provide much reassurance regarding the CSJ’s integrity. Appointees include the CSJ’s outgoing president (2021-2024) óscar Alberto López Jérez who was added in 2021 to the US State Department’s ‘Engel List’ of individuals from the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras) accused of corruption, obstructing investigations into corruption, or undermining democratic processes. This was because López was among the five new SC judges picked by the legislature in May 2021 to replace those ejected in a process which the US noted “appears to have contravened the Salvadorean constitution”.
Local media outlets like?GatoEncerrado have also raised concerns over another new CSJ justice, Patricia Castillo. In a report published on 27 September, GatoEncerrado highlights that up until September this year, Castillo had served as deputy secretary of integrity to the presidency (indicating her proximity to Bukele). It also highlights other posts that she has held which suggest that she enjoys Bukele’s trust, including serving as legal advisor to the auditing secretariat – another dependency of the presidency.
The CSJ appointment process has been slammed in general for lacking transparency by civil society groups like US-based Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF). A 24 September report by national daily La Prensa Gráfica cites DPLF representative Gabriela Mundo as saying the process was marked by the “limited participation of civil society” and an “evident lack of criteria based on merit” which “casts doubt on the legitimacy of the appointments”. Mundo adds that the process took place in the context of “absolute control on the part of the ruling party which bolsters our concern … regarding the independence of the judicial power and … democratic system in El Salvador”.
领英推荐
TSE elected
As well as the CSJ appointments, on 25 September El Salvador’s legislature also picked the new five-member top electoral authority (TSE) for 2024-2029.
Tasked with staging legislative and municipal elections in 2027, and presidential elections in 2029, the TSE will now be headed up by Roxana Soriano who was previously the head of the comptroller general’s office (CCR) – a post she received in 2023. Investigative digital media outlets such as El Faro, Focos, and Factum have questioned Soriano’s lack of impartiality, however – not least given her earlier unsuccessful bid to run as a pre-legislative candidate in NI internal elections in 2020.
Other dubious connections
In a report published on 17 September Focos highlights that the new head of the electoral authority, Roxana Soriano, also has ties to the influential Castro Sol family, which is reportedly close to Bukele and has considerable influence within his government. The media outlet reports that her husband is José Fernando Viaud Hidalgo, the cousin of housing minister Michelle Sol, who it describes as a “personal friend” of Bukele. Sol is married to Ernesto Castro, the president of the legislative assembly and a co-founder of Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas (NI) party, who Focos describes as a “friend and associate of Bukele for more than 20 years” and who served as his private secretary from 2019-2020.
Thank you for reading the chosen article from our Security & Strategic Review. For access to LatinNews’ full portfolio of reports, you are very welcome to sign up for a 14-day free trial.
Articles in this issue: