By Luis De Jesus
May 31, 2024, 9:06 PM EDT
Nayib Bukele will assume the presidency of El Salvador this Saturday for a second consecutive term after winning the February elections with more than 85% support.
Bukele, 43 years old and a businessman by profession, will take office for the period 2024-2029, facing criticism for several actions of his first term, such as the entry into Congress with armed soldiers, the emergency regime to combat gangs and the adoption of bitcoin as legal tender.
Congress granted him a six-month permit to focus on his political campaign, a period that ends this Friday. And, starting Saturday, he must urgently address the improvement of the country’s economy, the main concern of Salvadorans according to various surveys.
Daniel Noboa and Javier Milei will attend the investiture of Nayib Bukele
The investiture ceremony will begin at 8:00 in the morning at the Plaza Capitán General Gerardo Barrios, in the center of San Salvador.
The president of the Legislative Assembly, Ernesto Castro, will impose the presidential sash on Bukele, who will then give a speech. Dignitaries such as the King of Spain, Felipe VI, and the Latin American presidents Javier Milei, of Argentina, and Daniel Noboa, of Ecuador, will attend.
For Javier Milei, it will be his first attendance at the inauguration of another president since he took office on December 10, and his first official trip to another Latin American country.
The event will be the first meeting between Milei and Bukele, after the latter did not attend the inauguration of the Argentine president in Buenos Aires in December.
Daniel Noboa has been compared to Bukele for his “iron fist” policy against organized crime, but in a recent interview, the Ecuadorian president stressed that his policies go beyond combating violence, also focusing on job creation.
Among other attendees will be the Secretary of Homeland Security of the United States, Alejandro Mayorkas, and the presidents of Paraguay, Santiago Peña; Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chávez; and Honduras, Xiomara Castro.
Representatives from Chile, Uruguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Brazil will also be present.
Representatives of Salvadoran opposition parties will not attend the event.
Representative Marcela Villatoro, of the Nationalist Republican Alliance, stated that she will not participate in the event and highlighted the need to be consistent with her complaints against the government. Claudia Ortiz, from the Vamos party, will also be absent under the argument that she would be inconsistent with her oath to comply with and enforce the Constitution.
With information from the EFE news agency.
Keep reading:
• Alejandro Mayorkas will represent the US at Bukele’s inauguration in El Salvador on June 1
• Daniel Noboa presented his first assessment six months into his government: “We will not go back”
• Daniel Noboa is the most popular South American president, followed by Javier Milei and Luis Lacalle Pou