Bukele's party in El Salvador ousts top prosecutor, spurring U.S. criticism
- The party of El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, voted early yesterday to remove the Central American country's top prosecutor, part of an intensifying political drama that has drawn criticism from U.S. officials and others.
The vote shortly after midnight to dismiss Attorney General Raul Melara followed a new legislative majority's vote on Saturday night to oust all of the judges who sit in the constitutional chamber of the nation's Supreme Court.
The vote provoked rebukes from opposition lawmakers as well as some international rights organizations.
After a call with Bukele later yesteday, U.S. Secretary of State
Antony Blinken expressed "grave concern" over the ouster of the judges and prosecutor in a statement.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris tweeted late on Sunday that the United States had "deep concerns about El Salvador’s democracy, in light of the National Assembly’s vote to remove constitutional court judges."
Ruling party lawmakers accused Melara, whose office wields significant power to conduct investigations, of lacking independence, while Blinken cited what he described as the chief prosecutor's effective track record in fighting corruption and impunity. President Joe Biden's administration has cited corruption in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras as one of the root causes, along with gang violence and poverty, of the increased flow of migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border.
His administration is pressing those governments to do more to fight crime.