El Salvador's President Nayib Boucle joined a host of world leaders on Wednesday to celebrate President-elect Donald Trump's election victory, praying that God would “guide” him and calling his victory a “watershed moment.” expressed. [the road of] human civilization. ”
Bukele shared an image of him greeting Trump during a meeting when he was still president, and the two sides maintained a friendly working relationship. Relations between the United States and El Salvador deteriorated dramatically under outgoing President Joe Biden, who antagonized Mr. Boucle by questioning domestic presidential decisions and encouraging immigration from Latin America. Bukele's government has prioritized restricting emigration and encouraging the repatriation of Salvadorans.
“May God bless you and guide you,” Bukele wrote in his congratulatory message.
President Bukele reflected on the election in another post on social media X (formerly Twitter).
“It doesn’t matter what your political preferences are or whether you like what happened or what will happen,” Bukele wrote. “But I don't think you fully understand the turning point in human civilization that began yesterday.”
Bukele has not yet elaborated on his comments.
El Salvador's president, one of the most popular presidents in the world, was re-elected in February with a whopping 85% of the vote in an election deemed fair by the Organization of American States (OAS). His third-party New Ideas movement has all but eliminated the political power of the country's mainstream parties, even in El Salvador's Congress, and is backed by a pledge to eradicate the country's powerful gangs, most notably the Mara Salvatrucha. (MS-13) and the 18th Street Gang. Opposition media have also acknowledged that between his first term in office in 2019 and 2023, Bukele has largely eliminated gangs through mass incarceration and a program that empowers the police and military to target gang leaders. Eradicated.
As a result of the anti-gang program, El Salvador has seen a boom in foreign investment, tourism and small businesses, and Mr. Boucle expressed hope that this will bring Salvadorans from around the world back to their homeland.
Bukele publicly thanked the Trump administration for its support in the fight against gangs. He had a hard time getting similar anti-crime support from Biden, with whom he was openly at odds. In 2022, in response to a Biden administration State Department spokesperson claiming that Biden supports anti-gang efforts, Bukele said, “Certainly, we have support from the U.S. government to fight crime, but.'' He emphasized. [that] It was under the Trump administration. ”
He accused the Biden White House of “just supporting gangs.”
Speaking to reporters at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in 2024, Bukele lamented that his country was “not a priority for this administration.”
“For us, the United States has always been our first partner in all aspects: economically, a large part of the population lives here, currency, etc. In fact, American influence is in every sense of the word,” he said at the time. He said this. “unfortunately, [Biden] The government was not very interested in working with us from the beginning. ”
He said bilateral relations with Trump have become “much better.”
Bukele has also been harshly critical of efforts to prosecute President-elect Trump. In an interview with Tucker Carlson in June, Bukele predicted that Trump would win the presidency unless Democrats found a legal way to remove him from the ballot.
“Either you cancel your candidacy or you leave him alone. But by just attacking him, you're running the biggest campaign in history,” Bukele predicted. did. “They're making a big mistake. A big, big, big, big mistake.”
The relationship between Mr. Bukele and Mr. Trump is not without some disagreements. President Trump has praised Boucle in the past, but in July he accused Boucle of flooding America with gang members and made comments that downplayed the success of anti-gang programs.
“A country, and I happen to really like the president of that country, has a great reputation because he's a great shepherd of this country,” Trump said. “He's sending all the criminals, all the drug dealers, all the people in prison into the United States.”
“He's trying to convince everyone what a great job he's doing in running the country. Well, he's not doing a great job,” Trump continued, but if… If he were president of this nameless country, he said, “I would be worse than any of them. The place would be completely empty by now.”
President Trump later clarified that he was referring to El Salvador. Bukele responded to the comments simply by writing on social media that he would “take the high road.”
RELATED — LIVE: El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele speaks at CPAC 2024
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