El Salvador’s Bukele curtails influence of powerful national business association

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, approved the reforms of 23 decrees approved by the Legislative Assembly to remove the main business association of the country, the National Association of Private Enterprise (ANEP), from the boards of directors of an equal number of smaller, autonomous institutions.

The Presidency advised this Saturday that the reforms “will allow greater transparency and openness in the election process of the private sector representatives in the boards of directors of 23 autonomous institutions”.

It pointed out that they will “guarantee a greater participation” of the private sector in the representation quotas in the councils and boards of directors of entities such as the National Administration of Aqueducts and Sewers (ANDA) and the Executive Port Commission (CEPA).

In these autonomous entities, ANEP, an association with which Bukele has had confrontations during his two years of government, had one or two of its representatives.

The reforms were approved during a plenary session that began on Thursday and concluded on Friday morning, and in which opposition deputies pointed out that the ruling party was giving “more control” to Bukele since the new representatives of the private business sector will be proposed by the ministers of the current administration.

On Thursday night, Bukele posted on his Twitter that what was being approved in Parliament “is called DEMOCRACY, although the ideological apparatus tries to make us believe that a syndicate represents all private enterprise in our country and that it should have more power than citizens.”

ANEP brings together some 14,000 companies from different sectors, making it the main business association in the Central American country.

In May last year, Bukele accused the president of the syndicate, Javier Simán, of sabotaging his government’s work and failing to recognize its leadership.

After business, people and academics criticized Bukele’s management of millions of dollars in funds to address the Covid-19 pandemic.

In his second year speech before Congress, Bukele asserted that El Salvador has entered a “new stage” and must overcome former governments’ “ideological apparatus”.