Thread by @ElFaroEnglish

#ElSalvador | This morning the Organization of American States said that "we completely reject" the reasons given on Friday by the Bukele admin to cut off cooperation with the @OEA_CICIES, the International Commission against Impunity in #ElSalvador. oas.org/es/centro_noti…

Bukele argued that "the OAS has no intention to fight impunity in El Salvador" because Secretary General Luis Almagro had contracted former San Salvador mayor Ernesto Muyshondt, of opposition party Arena, as an advisor. Bukele called Muyshondt a "delinquent."

On Friday, the new Salvadoran attorney general appointed on May 1 by the Nuevas Ideas-controlled Assembly, Rodolfo Delgado, announced that he would look to cut off all ties to the #CICIES within 30 days. Background on the commission👇

https://twitter.com/ElFaroEnglish/status/1400861804843122693

Almagro then turned to actions taken by the Bukele administration which "made it impossible for the commission's work to continue." First, a May 5 law granting retroactive impunity to public officials for irregularities in pandemic-related spending👉 mailchi.mp/elfaro.net/el-…

Second, the government's decision not to publish its first Covid-19 transparency report which "lays out a series of irregularities of an apparently criminal nature, meriting investigation."

Almagro also claimed that the administration, through Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado, sought to "impede advances in the [commission's] investigations into reports of corruption in the current administration."

Almagro also noted that the administration had repeatedly attempted to induce the commission to "exclusively investigate the actions of the political opposition." He then stated that he refused to let the OAS commission become a "government instrument for political persecution."

The above-listed problems "make 'the fight against corruption' more of a rhetorical effort than a political and ethical objective," concluded Almagro, "which makes it impossible for the #CICIES to be a part of this process."