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1 1 (August 3, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/goveeez0001 and id is 1 raw text is: * Congressional *Research Service El Salvador: Authoritarian Actions and U.S. Response Updated August 3, 2021 On May 1-2, 2021, the newly seated National Assembly of El Salvador, now dominated by President Nayib Bukele's New Ideas party, dismissed the five magistrates on the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court and the attorney general and replaced them with allies of the president. The dismissals, enforced by the police, reportedly occurred in retaliation for the attorney general's investigations of corruption in Bukele's Cabinet and court rulings that Bukele violated the constitution in ruling by decree during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Since May 2021, government harassment of civil society, independent media, and the opposition has increased, prompting U.S. concern. Biden Administration officials and some Members of Congress have expressed concerns about democracy in El Salvador, which is located in the Northern Triangle region of Central America. On May 2, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called President Bukele to express concern about the dismissals and democratic backsliding. High-level visits, including that of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Samantha Power; the reprogramming of U.S. foreign aid from supporting government agencies to supporting civil society; and two State Department reports to Congress identifying Bukele officials as corrupt have reiterated U.S. concerns. On May 19, the House Foreign Affairs Committee reported H Res. 408, urging the Salvadoran government to respect the country's democratic institutions. Democratic Backsliding On June 1, 2019, Bukele, a businessperson and former mayor of San Salvador, took office for a five-year presidential term after winning a first-round victory as an outsider standing for the Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA) party. His New Ideas party was not yet eligible to field candidates. Born in 1981, Bukele is the first president to come of age politically after the 1980-1992 civil conflict and the first presidential candidate in 30 years to win without support from the conservative National Republican Alliance (ARENA) party or the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) party. Bukele has governed as a populist, using social media to communicate with supporters, make policy declarations, purge officials, and attack opponents. Through 2020, Bukele battled with the legislature and the Supreme Court over funds he sought for his security plan and his aggressive enforcement of a pandemic quarantine. In February 2020, Bukele ordered the military to surround the legislature in an Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov IN11658 CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Membersand Committeesof Congress

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