The Salvadoran Information Institute opens an administrative process for the president

The state Institute of Access to Public Information (IAIP) of El Salvador opened an administrative process to sanction the country's president, Nayib Bukele, for allegedly refusing to declassify data on the structure of the State Intelligence Agency (OIE).

"The IAIP has initiated a sanction procedure against the President of the Republic, Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez, for the alleged commission of the very serious infraction" of "not providing information whose delivery has been ordered by this institute," said the entity Wednesday in a statement.

He explained that in December 2019 he ordered the Presidency to modify a resolution of November 2015 in which he declared as information "reserved" the data requested by several citizens through the mechanisms of the Law on Access to Public Information (LAIP).

The institute sought that the Executive will declassify and deliver the information related to the organizational structure, details of the undisclosed persons and their OIE budget.

The Government responded to the institute that filed an appeal with the Administrative Litigation Chamber to reverse the resolution, but the procedure was not officially notified to the IAIP.

The LAIP establishes a fine of between 6,000 and 12,000 dollars for this type of infraction, corresponding to 20 and 40 minimum wages in the commercial sector, respectively.

It is not the first time that such an entity sanctions Bukele, of the right-wing Grand Alliance for National Unity (WINS).

The Court of Government Ethics sanctioned him in 2016 with a fine of $ 2,517 for appointing his brother Yamil Bukele as president of the Municipal Sports Institute (IMDER) of San Salvador when he was mayor of the capital.

The president, who assumed power on June 1, 2019 and thus broke up with a 30-year bipartisanship in the Executive, has not given his position regarding this process.