Biden sends trusted diplomat to El Salvador in aftermath of judicial ousters

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – U.S. President Joe Biden decided to appoint diplomat Jean Manes as acting chargé d’affaires of El Salvador to show the “importance” that Washington gives to the situation in that country after the dismissals of judges of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) and the country’s attorney general.

“The reason we sent Jean Manes is because of the importance we give to El Salvador, particularly at this time,” a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday.

State Department spokesman Ned Price confirmed in a statement the appointment Wednesday of Manes as the new U.S. chargé d’affaires in the Central American country, where she served as U.S. ambassador between 2016 and 2019.

The official said the situation in El Salvador has such a level “of urgency” that merits the appointment of Manes, who will lead the diplomatic legation for a few months until Biden nominates and the Senate approves an ambassador. Manes will replace Brendan O’Brien as chargé d’affaires in El Salvador.

Because of her history as ambassador to this country, Manes knows both Salvadoran society and President Nayib Bukele well. She was stationed there when he was mayor of San Salvador and when he assumed the presidency.

Read also: Dismissals in El Salvador raise alarm in international community

Biden hopes that Manes’ previous relationship with Bukele and his team will allow for a “constructive relationship.”

“We also want to have a frank discussion about where we see concerns. Obviously, the main issue of concern right now is what happened on May 1 and what we saw or what many Salvadorans saw as an interruption of the constitutional order,” said the U.S. official.

On May 1, the ruling party took the reins of the Legislative Assembly (Parliament) for the period 2021-2024, and its first action was to remove the attorney general Raúl Melara and the magistrates of the CSJ with whom Bukele had clashed during the last year.

The US and different organizations, such as the UN and the European Union (EU), sounded alarms about the risk of Bukele concentrating on his figure and that of his party all the powers of the State.

Read also: El Salvador enters a political crisis under criticism from the U.S. of court ousters

In a recent visit to El Salvador, the U.S. special envoy for the Northern Triangle of Central America, Ricardo Zúñiga, considered that the best option to end the crisis is to return to the previous balance of powers. Still, Bukele has already responded by assuring that the dismissals are “irreversible”.

Since this crisis began, Washington has announced that it will withdraw its aid to the Salvadoran National Police and a government information institute and divert it to civil society.

The U.S. is El Salvador’s main security ally in the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime, in addition to being one of its main economic partners.