Demonstrators gather outside the Consulate General of El Salvador in Chicago on May 31, 2024. (Blair Paddock / WTTW News)

Chants of “Que queremos? Justicia. Cuando? Ahora” were heard outside of the Consulate General of El Salvador in Chicago on Friday morning.

Protestors denounced the second inauguration of El Salvador’s controversial president, Nayib Bukele, ahead of his Saturday reinduction into the position. The group of about 20 people protested in tandem with other social justice organizations that have demonstrations planned over the weekend across the United States and Central American and European countries.

Bukele will be entering his second term after an overwhelming victory in February — a move against El Salvador’s constitution, which prohibits presidential reelection.

“We join in the struggle of the Salvadoran people in the struggle to reclaim their country and the democracy for which generations of Salvadorans fought and sacrificed their lives,” said Jhonathan Gómez with the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America.

Bukele is able surpass these restrictions because his party — Nueva Ideas — is in control of all three branches of government. The party leads the National Assembly, having removed the attorney general and five magistrates of the Constitutional Court. That court then ruled a constitution-defying decision that presidents can run for consecutive reelection.

In April, the Legislative Assembly amended an article of the country’s constitution to limit people’s right to participate in future constitutional reform processes.

“An authoritarian government has now altered the electoral process,” Gómez said.

Bukele has tried to appeal to voters through addressing gang violence, and in doing so has put the country through a “state of emergency” since 2022. Human Rights Watch said the order “suspended certain basic rights” where police and soldiers have conducted hundreds of indiscriminate raids, arresting more than 73,000 people into “historically poor conditions” with overcrowding, violence and inadequate access to basic services.

El Salvador currently has the highest prison population rate, according to World Prison Brief.

Demonstrators gather outside the Consulate General of El Salvador in Chicago on May 31, 2024. (Blair Paddock / WTTW News)

Neris Gonzalez sees parallels between the current political state and what she saw during El Salavador’s Civil War.

While living in the country in 1979, she said, she was captured and tortured for two weeks by the government. Later coming to the United States, she and other victims successfully sued two former generals from El Salvador over torture.

“Having lived in a military dictatorship, I can identify the same kind of parallels … things like arbitrary detentions including of very young people and people who are speaking out or in opposition,” Gonzalez said.

Sheila Brady has been part of the cause since the Civil War, now organizing alongside Salvadorans in Cinquera as part of Sister Cities. They share education and organizing strategies, find scholarships for students and provide support to environmental causes.

Brady said the show of solidarity from Chicagoans is vital in trying to “unveil the reputation” that Bukele has internationally.

“He seems to want to implement a society in El Salvador that is technocratic and appeals to perhaps tourists and investors,” Brady added.

The protest, attended by both those organizing since the ‘80s and young people, provides hope to Gonzalez. She sees intergenerational organizing as a tool to educate a new generation so that her and others’ histories aren’t erased.

“It can serve as a moving force in the new generation,” Gonzalez said.

The Consulate General of El Salvador in Chicago did not respond to requests for comment.