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“RECENT EVENTS IN EL SALVADOR” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S5655 on July 30, 2012.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
RECENT EVENTS IN EL SALVADOR
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I want to speak very briefly about recent events in El Salvador which is in the midst of a constitutional and political crisis involving the composition and power of the Supreme Court.
Essentially what happened is that in June the Supreme Court ruled that the National Assembly had abused its power by naming justices to the court on two separate occasions, and ordered a new judicial selection process with which the National Assembly then refused to comply. A majority of the deputies took the extraordinary step of appealing the Supreme Court's decision to the Central American Court of Justice, and a final ruling is expected in a matter of days.
Last week, Congressman Jim McGovern, who is probably more knowledgeable about El Salvador than anyone else in Congress, and I commented on the situation. We said:
We are encouraged by the commitment by President Funes and representatives of El Salvador's political parties to resolve this crisis expeditiously. We agree with the Department of State that this is a matter to be resolved by Salvadorans through dialogue, and we reaffirm our support for U.S. assistance for El Salvador which addresses a range of mutual interests, from improving law enforcement to combating poverty.
Over the past 30 years, El Salvador has faced many challenges, from civil war, to corruption, to cyclones. This constitutional political crisis is the latest test of whether the country's governmental institutions can emerge stronger, the rule of law strengthened, and its people more united.
Since then, there has been further progress towards a resolution of this crisis. As a former prosecutor, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations that funds international aid programs, I can think of few things as important to any society as an independent judiciary. Like free and fair elections, it is a cornerstone of democratic government. Sometimes I agree with the decisions of our Supreme Court and sometimes I disagree. But we comply with its decisions because we know the alternative is chaos and the erosion of the checks and balances that protect our 226 year old democracy.
I suspect the people of El Salvador feel similarly, and I am hopeful that however their representatives resolve this matter the independence of the Salvadoran judiciary will be preserved and strengthened.
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