The Latin American and Caribbean Network for Democracy (Redlad) is deeply concerned about the statements that the President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele has made against the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) due to its warnings made about how through of the State of exception, promulgated since March 2022, has been used to violate the human rights of the citizens, the political opposition, the press and persons deprived of liberty.

His speech is intended to stigmatize the work that the IACHR has carried out since its creation in favor of defending the rights of all people, respecting and promoting legal frameworks and international conventions in all matters, and denouncing any violation of those rights in all countries of the continent without distinguishing political positions.

Un mensaje a todos los pueblos de Latinoamérica, sobre la @CIDH y la urgencia de que se permita a los gobiernos defender a la gente honrada. pic.twitter.com/aOGEl6RbCY

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) November 12, 2022

Neither the Commission nor any of the civil society organizations in El Salvador and the hemisphere that support its work are against the citizenry. On the contrary, we condemn the Salvadoran government for the violations of civic space and we are terrified at how President Bukele manipulates the evident crisis in security and coexistence that is plaguing the Central American country to validate many authoritarian measures, with which he undermines the fundamental principles of any democracy and of the rule of law.

Based on the above, in Redlad:

• We demand that President Bukele stop stigmatizing the work of the IACHR, which is always framed in human rights and the defense of democracy.
• We call on all civil society in the Americas to defend the IACHR, since it has been a great ally in denouncing violations of our human rights throughout its existence.

The IACHR is a heritage of the entire continent that has always been attacked from all political sides and by many leaders throughout its history, it is not an enemy of the citizenry but an instance of great importance for the work that many organizations carry out of the hemisphere.