R47083 — El Salvador: Background and U.S. Relations
Reports · published 2024-01-29 · v6 · Archived · crsreports.congress.gov ↗
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- Clare Ribando Seelke
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R47083
Summary
Congress maintains interest in El Salvador, a small Central American nation, due to the history of U.S. involvement in the country and extensive cultural ties. A large percentage of El Salvador’s population has lived in the United States since the Salvadoran civil conflict (1980-1992), and the country is a source of irregular migration to the United States. As of 2021, some 2.5 million people born in El Salvador resided in the United States, an estimated 32% of them in the country without authorization. In the 1980s, the U.S. government spent billions of dollars to support the Salvadoran government’s counterinsurgency efforts against the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). The United States later supported a 1992 peace accord that ended the conflict and transformed the FMLN into a political party. Over the next few decades, the United States worked with both leftist FMLN and conservative National Republican Alliance (ARENA) administrations. However, popular disaffection with corruption and insecurity under both parties led to the election of political outsider Nayib Bukele in 2019. Relations between the United States and Bukele’s El Salvador have been periodically strained. Bukele has governed as a populist, using social media to communicate with supporters, announce policies, purge officials, and attack opponents. Through 2020, Bukele’s ability to implement his policy agenda was hampered by contentious relations with the opposition-dominated legislature and the Salvadoran Supreme Court. Bukele remained popular, but critics warned about his increasingly authoritarian tendencies and possible ties to organized crime. In February 2021, Bukele’s New Ideas party and its allies won a supermajority in parliamentary elections. Since May 2021, the New Ideas-dominated legislature has helped Bukele consolidate control over all branches of government. The legislature dismissed the attorney general and five magistrates from the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Chamber, replacing them with Bukele loyalists. In September 2021, those magistrates ruled that Bukele could run for another term despite constitutional prohibitions on reelection. After gang-related homicides spiked in March 2022, Bukele successfully sought, and the legislature approved, a state of exception, which suspended many civil rights, enabled mass arrests, and resulted in human rights abuses. The Salvadoran government has repeatedly extended the state of exception, while dramatic reductions in violent crime that have bolstered Bukele’s popularity. Many expect Bukele to garner a first-round victory in presidential elections and anticipate his party dominating legislative elections scheduled for February 4, 2024. U.S. Policy The Biden Administration’s policy toward El Salvador is guided by the U.S. Strategy for Addressing the Root Causes of Migration in Central America, which aims to promote economic prosperity, strengthen governance, and improve security in El Salvador; it is also influenced by geopolitical concerns, such as El Salvador’s relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Criticism from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and targeted sanctions related to democratic backsliding and corruption in El Salvador initially strained relations with the Bukele government. Relations have improved as U.S. officials have scaled back public criticism of the government while praising collaboration on migration control and other issues. Although some Members of Congress have expressed concerns about democratic backsliding in El Salvador, others have praised Bukele. As Congress oversees U.S. foreign assistance to El Salvador, it is considering the Biden Administration’s FY2024 budget request of $124.8 million for El Salvador. The House-passed (H.R. 4665/H.Rept. 118-146) and Senate-reported (S. 2438/S.Rept. 118-71) versions of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2024, would not specify funding levels for El Salvador. Both bills would maintain some restrictions on aid for the Salvadoran government, however, and S. 2438 would maintain a prohibition on Foreign Military Financing for El Salvador. Other legislative measures could affect U.S.-Salvadoran migration ties. For example, the Secure the Border Act of 2023 (H.R. 2), passed by the House in May 2023, would direct the Secretary of State to “seek to negotiate” an asylum cooperation agreement with the Salvadoran government.
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