Protests against re-election occurred in

San Salvador San Salvador (; ) is the capital and the largest city of El Salvador and its eponymous department. It is the country's political, cultural, educational and financial center. The Metropolitan Area of San Salvador, which comprises the capital i ...

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

on 1 May 2023 and 15 September 2023. In two protest marches, protesters marched from the Cuscatlán Park and the Rosales Hospital to the Gerardo Barrios Plaza in protest of the

Salvadoran gang crackdown The Salvadoran gang crackdown, referred to in El Salvador as the régimen de excepción (Spanish language, Spanish for ''state of exception'') and the guerra contra las pandillas (Spanish for ''war against gangs''), began in March 2022 in re ...

and President Nayib Bukele's re-election campaign. Protesters also demanded an increase in minimum wage and that the government respects the rights of syndicates and respects the constitution.

Organization

In mid-April 2023, seven Salvadoran leftist organizations announced that they would hold a protest march in San Salvador on 1 May 2023 in commemoration of the

International Workers' Day International Workers' Day, also known as Labour Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement and occurs every year on 1 May, ...

. The protest's organizers stated that they were protesting against the country's gang crackdown, which had up to that point led to the arrests of over 67,000 people, and against the re-election campaign of President Nayib Bukele; re-election is prohibited by the constitution of El Salvador. On 20 April 2023, Rodrigo Cerritos, a member of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front's (FMLN) national council, confirmed that the FMLN would participate in the 1 May 2023 protest and asked the

National Civil Police The National Civil Police of El Salvador ( Spanish: ''Policía Nacional Civil de El Salvador''), also known as PNC, is the national civilian police of El Salvador. Although the National Civil Police is not part of the Armed Forces of El Salvado ...

(PNC) to not block or prevent the protest.

1 May protest

The protest gathered at 8 a.m. at the Cuscatlán Park. Protesters traveled for three hours to the Gerardo Barrios Plaza. During the march, protesters demanded an increase in

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...

from US$365 to US$500, the respect of syndical liberties, the respect of the constitution, and opposed the capture of innocent people in the gang crackdown and presidential re-election. In total, 34 organizations and the FMLN,

Nuestro Tiempo ''Nuestro'' was the first nationally published, monthly, general-interest magazine, in English, for and about Latinos in the United States. It was a landmark in publishing history in this country. Up until this time only "special interest" magaz ...

and

Vamos Vamos (Greek: Βάμος) is a small town and former municipality in the Chania regional unit, Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform "Kallikratis" it is a municipal unit, part of the municipality of Apokoronas, serving as its his ...

political parties participated in the protest. Protesters met with Rolando Castro, the minister of labor who was present on behalf of Bukele, at the end of the march. Protesters also burned an

effigy An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...

of Bukele.

15 September protest

On 11 September 2023, various civil organizations announced that they would hold another protest march against re-election on 15 September 2023, the country's independence day. The protest was planned to march from the Rosales Hospital to the Gerardo Barrios Plaza. According to Francisco Omar Parada, a spokesman for the Resistance and Popular Rebellion Bloc, the march would protest presidential re-election, the reductions of municipalities and seats on the Legislative Assembly, the "destruction" ("") of democratic institutions, and the "illegal control" ("") exerted by the presidency, the judiciary, the office of the attorney general, and other state institutions. The march's motto was "no to re-election, not one day more" (""). The presidential candidates of the

Nationalist Republican Alliance The Nationalist Republican Alliance ( es, Alianza Republicana Nacionalista, ARENA) is a conservative, right-wing political party of El Salvador. It was founded on 30 September 1981 by retired Salvadoran Army Major Roberto D'Aubuisson. It defines ...

(ARENA)—Joel Sánchez—, the FMLN— Manuel Flores—and Nuestro Tiempo— Luis Parada—participated in the protest, as did various opposition deputies of the Legislative Assembly.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salvadoran protests, 2023 May 2023 events in El Salvador September 2023 events in El Salvador 2023 in El Salvador 2023 protests Protests in North America Protest marches 21st century in San Salvador Nayib Bukele

Organization

1 May protest

15 September protest

See also

References