The re-elected president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, highlighted his security policy in his presidential inauguration speech.
“We fixed the most urgent thing, which was security,” said Bukele after being sworn in for the second time as president of the Central American republic.
The king of Spain, Felipe VI, was present at the event; the president of Argentina, Javier Milei; other leaders, Bukele’s family and close friends.
Outside, in the Plaza Capitán General Gerardo Barrios, hundreds of people, including special guests from different sectors of the country and internationally, supporters of Bukele and the ruling party, Nuevas Ideas (NI), witnessed his speech.
Bukele thus becomes the first president of El Salvador’s democratic era to take office for a second consecutive term, after decades of military dictatorship and a 12-year civil war (1980-1992).
Various political and social actors in El Salvador have stated that they do not recognize the legality or legitimacy of Bukele’s second term because it is contrary to the Constitution.
Moments before the investiture, the Congress with a large pro-government majority began an extraordinary plenary session in the facilities of the National Theater and then moved it to the National Palace.
Bukele won the elections on February 4 with more than 85% of the valid votes despite the fact that the Constitution prohibits immediate re-election.
His participation in those elections occurred after the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, elected by the 2021-2024 legislature without following the established legal process, issued an act in which the criteria for interpreting the Constitution changed. .
With this resolution, which according to experts does not have general effects and is not mandatory because it is not a ruling, Bukele did not have to wait 10 years to seek re-election.
The last Salvadoran president to be re-elected for a second consecutive term was the dictator and general Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, who governed between 1931 and 1944, and left power after a general strike.
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