By storming the Congress of the Republic with heavily armed military and police on Sunday, February 16th, President Nayib Bukele heightened the political and social crisis in El Salvador. When Congress failed to approve a loan of $109 million for the President’s Territorial Control Security plan, he said he had lost patience:
"If these scoundrels don't approve the Land Control Plan this week, we'll summon them again, we'll ask God for wisdom and we'll say: God, you asked me for patience, but these scoundrels don't want to work for the people. If they do not approve the loan, the Council of Ministers will summon them again and if they still do not approve, the people will have to put Article 87 of the Constitution into practice” (this article establishes the right of the people to insurrection in order to re-establish constitutional order).
This speech has cost Bukele national and international prestige. Inside and outside El Salvador, there was hope that change would happen after years of corruption and violence, but no one doubts, except from his supporters, that the speech in Congress was unacceptable and undemocratic. The country is exhausted by war and was angry with the reappearance of weapons, threats and authoritarian language. The bloodshed and the years of suffering are still too fresh.
