Armed soldiers enter El Salvador parliament
Heavily-armed police and soldiers in El Salvador have forced their way into parliament, demanding the approval of a $109m (£85m) loan to raised equip them.
They entered the building as President Nayib Bukele was about to address lawmakers. Earlier, he gave them seven days to back his loan plan.
Opposition politicians called the appearance of armed men in parliament an unprecedented act of intimidation.
El Salvador has among the highest murder rates on the planet.
Most of the violence is completed by criminal gangs that operate across Central America.
President Bukele took office in June 2019, pledging to tackle the legacy of gang violence and corruption in the impoverished Central American nation.
The 38-year-old leader really wants to use the loan to increase the equipment of police and the military in the fight against crime.
Specifically, the funds would be used to get police vehicles, uniforms, surveillance equipment and a helicopter.
But over the weekend, most MPs opted never to sit for a debate over the proposed bill.
Without quorum in parliament, the president called on his supporters to descend on the parliament building, the BBC's Central America correspondent Will Grant reports.
About 50,000 pro-government demonstrators proved.
President Bukele told them to be back in the streets within weekly if MPs didn't debate the bill.
His political opponents accused him of threatening them and turning increasingly authoritarian.
