El Salvador's National Police announced on May 31 that they had foiled a plot to bomb a series of public places across the country to disrupt the inauguration of President Nayib Bukele, a politician who was recently re-elected for a second term.
The El Salvador National Police said the plot was allegedly led by the “El Salvador Rebel Brigades” – an organization of gunmen who participated in the Central American country’s 1980-1994 civil war. The group’s goal was to bomb crowded places such as gas stations, supermarkets, bus stations, etc. across the country.
Earlier, on the night of March 30, El Salvador authorities arrested seven suspected leaders of the “El Salvador Rebel Brigade.” Among the suspects was Jose Santos Melara, a former congressman representing the left-wing Farabundo Martí Liberation Front.
President-elect Nayib Bukele is scheduled to be sworn in on June 1. In fact, El Salvador's Constitution does not allow the president to run for a second term, but the country's Constitutional Court ruled in 2021 that the 43-year-old president could run for re-election.