ONLINE EVENT: Pandemic Response and Executive Authority – The Case of El Salvador

COVID-19 AND LATIN AMERICA EVENT SERIES

President Nayib Bukele reacted quickly to the threat of Covid-19, closing El Salvador’s borders and implementing stay-at-home orders. But reports quickly emerged of arbitrary detentions by security forces enforcing Bukele’s quarantine. When the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Chamber ruled against the detentions, Bukele defied the court’s order, and the Salvadoran military remains in the streets enforcing a lockdown in the municipality of La Libertad.

How serious are concerns regarding human rights and the separation of powers in El Salvador, and what are the risks if the constitutional showdown continues? What limits exist on a president’s authority in a time of emergency, and might other countries in the region run a similar risk of executive overreach?

Follow this event on Twitter at #ElSalvadorDDHH and @The_Dialogue. 

We invite participants to submit questions using the event hashtag on Twitter OR to email questions to meetings@thedialogue.org. Please RSVP to receive dial-in information. 

SPEAKERS:

JOSÉ MIGUEL VIVANCO

Executive Director, Americas Division, Human Rights Watch (@JMVivancoHRW)

CARLOS DADA

Founder, El Faro (@CarlosDada)

LEONOR ARTEAGA

Senior Program Officer, Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF); Member of the El Salvador National Commission for the Search of Disappeared Persons (CONABÚSQUEDA) (@larteaga52)

MODERATOR:

MICHAEL CAMILLERI

Director, Peter D. Bell Rule of Law Program, Inter-American Dialogue (@camillerimj)