Set back for democracy in El Salvador

On Friday, June 2, the Salvadoran Legislature passed Decree 743 and President Funes immediately signed it into law. The law requires that all decisions made by the Constitutional Court be unanimous. This will basically ensure that the groundbreaking decisions the Court has made in the past two years, increasing transparency in government spending and increasing citizen participation in the voting process, will come to an end.  This decree has been hailed an Institutional Coup by various civil society organizations and poses a serious threat to democracy in El Salvador.  Salvadorans from all sectors, including conservatives, the private sector, youth, professionals and civil society organizations, have been protesting since Friday, June 2 (see El Faro’s photo gallery). SHARE is supporting a project through our counterpart Iniciativa Social para la Democracia (ISD) to mobilize opposition to this decree.

For more detail, read the great analysis Voice From El Salvador wrote on their blog: http://voiceselsalvador.wordpress.com/2011/06/04/institutional-coup-in-el-salvador/