The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukelereceived this Thursday a license from Congress to launch into the re-election campaign in the February elections and will be replaced by the Secretary of the Presidency, Claudia Juana Rodríguez de Guevaraclose to the president.
The license to the popular leader was approved with the votes of 67 deputies from the official bloc, which controls Congress, while 12 deputies voted against.
Likewise, the proposal to be replaced starting this Friday by Rodríguez de Guevara, a 42-year-old business administrator who has worked with him for a decade when he was mayor, was approved minutes later by 67 votes and 11 against.
“It remains as designated by the president Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez, and approved by this Legislative Assembly, the citizen Claudia Rodríguez de Guevara,” said the president of Congress, the ruling party Ernesto Castro, after the vote.
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Rodríguez de Guevara was financial manager of the mayor’s office of Nuevo Cuscatlánunder the mayor Bukele (2012-2015), and will be the country’s first president.
In September 2021, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, through an interpretation of the Constitution, authorized Bukele to seek reelection, which generated controversy among opposition sectors that consider the ruling “unconstitutional.”
During your leave, Bukele “will not be able to exercise the decision-making function such as the political and administrative leadership of the state apparatus, a monopoly on the use of state force,” according to the project approved by Congress.
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Nor will he be able to participate in the “law formation” processes, which will be the responsibility of his replacement.
In the session, several pro-government deputies spoke praising the achievements of Bukelewhich has high popularity in the country for its crusade against the feared gangs, but there was also criticism from opponents.
“You can’t give a license for something unconstitutional,” said right-wing congresswoman Claudia Ortiz of the Vamos party.
Act in future National Stadium
While the deputies debated the license, Bukele He was attending what would be his last official act as acting president: the laying of the first stone of the future National Stadium on the outskirts of San Salvador, which will be donated by China.
Its construction will take three years and cost $100 million, according to the president. The stadium will occupy the space of the military school, which will be built elsewhere.
Bukelewho throughout his administration has preferred to do his events at night, attended along with the Chinese ambassador, Zhang Yanhui, who said that the donation of the stadium is “to contribute to the modernization of El Salvador.”
Two weeks ago, a modern library donated by China was inaugurated in the center of the Salvadoran capital, which cost 54 million dollars, another sign of the growing Chinese presence in Central America, which worries the United States.