New El Salvador law orders compulsory retirement for 1/3 of country’s 690 judges

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly, controlled by President Nayib Bukele, has passed a controversial reform of the Judicial Career Law that results in the compulsory retirement of 1/3 of the country’s 690 judges, as well as dozens of prosecutors.

The main argument of Parliament president Ernesto Castro was that the country has had “enough of corrupt judges and justice tailored to power groups.”

The provision affects judges over 60 years of age or with 30 years of service. Among those dismissed is Jorge Guzmán, the judge in charge of the El Mozote case, a massacre of at least 1,000 civilians committed in 1980. In November 2020, Guzmán requested the Prosecutor’s Office to determine whether Bukele committed any wrongdoing by blocking judicial inspections at numerous military units, incurring alleged crimes of “dereliction of duty, disobedience, concealment of documents and cover-up.”

Guzmán’s case encapsulates everything that Bukele’s group suggests. “For those whom the regime or any of its officials consider enemies, there is no escape anymore,” El Faro wrote in an editorial.

“Anyone is now subject to judicial harassment, with no right to due process, no possible defense. There is no longer judicial independence, no constitutional guarantees or judicial recourse. There is no rule of law anymore. For friends of the regime, on the other hand, there is no more fear that their misdeeds will be punished.”

After the parliamentary approval, judges of numerous instances expressed their displeasure with the reform and the debates prior to its approval, “for being offensive and unworthy of judicial investiture.”

The judges claim that Parliament has no authority to reform the Judicial Career Law, which is why the bill passed by the governing Nuevas Ideas party (with the support of the Ganha, PDC and PCN parties) would be a sham. “These reforms violate judicial independence in the country and infringe on constitutional rights such as the right to work, labor stability, equality, human dignity, due process and legal certainty,” they said in a statement.

The Union of Salvadoran Judicial Officials also rejected the reforms and accused the government of trying to “deceive the people by saying that they are doing this because the people asked for the purging of the Judicial Branch. The law already provided mechanisms to punish judges who act against the law.”

The reforms passed on Tuesday were “not surprising,” according to the El Faro editorial, since the steamroller led by Bukele had already threatened that judges would “suffer the consequences should they fail to rule in a certain way.”

“And they have been accused of favoring ‘benefactor’ interests when they judge against the wishes of Bukele and his group. Therefore, the goal of the reform passed with a waiver of procedures is no secret,” alerted the publication, constantly attacked and scorned by the ruling party for its journalistic investigations, such as the one that recently reported on how the government negotiated with organized crime and tried to eliminate evidence of this with the new prosecutor appointed by the legislative, Rodolfo Delgado.

The Judicial Career Law reform was introduced in Tuesday’s plenary session with a waiver of passage by a Nuevas Ideas legislator and passed without further parliamentary debate, with the votes of 63 of the 84 deputies.

BUKELE’S LOYALS TO APPOINT REPLACEMENTS

In addition to the judicial purge, the passed reforms include a provision authorizing the Court to “take appropriate steps to fill judicial seats that become vacant” and “verify” compliance with that order. Another reform authorizes the Court to effect “corresponding, necessary, and indispensable transfers and appointments to the seats that become vacant so that access to justice will not be impaired.”

The Full Court and the Prosecutor General report directly to President Bukele and will be in charge of appointing replacements for the outgoing judges and prosecutors. This new blow against judicial independence adds to the one struck on May 1, when deputies irregularly ousted Constitutional Court magistrates and the Prosecutor General.

“This was an expected step [removal of judges] in the process of dismantling democracy and concentrating power, which the group ruling today began on the same day that Nayib Bukele took office as President of the Republic,” El Faro pointed out. “It is a group with intolerance as its ideology, authoritarianism as its ideal, propaganda as its strategy, and corruption as its exclusive exercise. These reforms represent a step forward on the path toward their goals, which are, in short, to put an end to our democratic era.”