Guatemala City – The Biden administration criticized El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele for his strong governing style, while the Trump administration saw him as Latin America’s new best friend.
Bukele has named himself by jailing thousands of suspected gang members, which has helped reduce the country’s homicide rate.
Human rights activists say more than 1% of the nation’s population is now incarcerated (including children) on conditions usually cruel, adding that he has been suspended from civil rights and has conducted large-scale trawls that will sweep crime and innocent.
Prisoners identified as gang members sit on the floor of the terrorist lockdown center in Tecoluca in March 2023.
(El Salvador Presidential Press Office via AP)
But when former U.S. diplomat Marco Rubio, former U.S. diplomat, became the inauguration of Latin American Secretary of State this week, he praised the 43-year-old El Salvador leader.
Buckley responded in kind.
He proposed this week that Trump would transfer immigrants imprisoned in the United States to detention centers in El Salvador, a punishment for “outsourcing” security and crime.
But Bucker didn’t stop there. He went on to say that he would also be a felon who lives with American citizens.
“We are willing to bring convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our massive prisons in exchange for a fee. This fee is relatively low for the United States, but it is important for us to make our entire prison system sustainable.”
Trump and billionaire Elon Musk quickly joined Rubio to judge the program’s “good idea”. Trump said he doesn’t think it’s too much compared to paying American private contractors to jail. Initially, no one mentioned that deportation of American citizens was illegal.
“We are deeply grateful,” Rubio said in a speech to San Salvador reporter. “This is just another sign of the incredible friends we have among President Bucker and the El Salvadors.”
He is energetic in praising the proposal’s “unprecedented generosity”, even though he continues to express his appreciation for Berkeley’s crackdown on the gang.
Later, TV videos showed two men in Burkel’s emerald green lakeside mansion, waving along the gentle hillside, waving on the boat on the water.
Buckley likes to call himself the coolest dictator in the world. He wore his usual pilot, twill and an unsnatched shirt. Rubio in a blue suit tries to take off his tie.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele at a meeting Monday at his residence at Lake Coatepeque.
(Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
Rubio has long been a admirer of Bukele, who he calls a friend. The relationship is new to Trump and may accelerate after Donald Trump Jr., Tucker Carlson and Matt Gaetz were the second inauguration of Berkele last year.
The relationship is mutually beneficial, and it is Trump who enjoys the light of a popular leader who is very tough on crime and is admired by some other presidents in the region.
For Berkle, he may oppose Trump’s potential anger by succumbing to the gesture of cooperation, avoiding the tariffs and other sanctions faced by many other countries.
“Bookley has absolute power in El Salvador, showing resilience…not caring about democratic norms or human rights, and Trump admires that,” said Michael Shifter, a senior fellow at the American Smart Dialogue, a think tank focused on Latin America. “They feed each other and both eliminate any restrictions on executive power.”
The United States and El Salvador have a long and controversial history, with the most dramatic era being the El Salvador Civil War.
From 1980-92, more than 75,000 people (a country with 5 million people) were killed, on the one hand, a battle between the U.S.-backed right-wing government and the Cuban-backed left-wing government. At the time, U.S. President Reagan saw the struggle as a crusade against Soviet-style communism, while the left saw it as seeking justice for the poor in the country.
The war was marked by violent behavior, including the murder of six well-trained Jesuit priests in the United States, their housekeeper and her daughter in 1989.
The war has driven thousands of El Salvadorians to immigrate to American cities, including Los Angeles, and consolidated connections through recognized communities.
In the months after Bukele’s first election in 2019, human rights violations and demolition of democracy have become increasingly clear. Like many dictators, he stacked the legislature, and then the courts with the loyalists, who in turn assured that he would face few criticisms or obstacles.
This allowed him to design unconstitutional runs for the second semester, which he assumed last year.
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele held a new meeting in San Salvador on January 14.
(Salvador Melendez/AP)
The chorus of international criticism has not stopped.
“We have recorded dozens of arbitrary arrests of children, boys and girls. Many of the arrests appear to be based on the appearance of the detainee or anonymous complaints, rather than on reliable evidence. They have quotas for arresting a certain number of people a day, he quoted police.
The Biden administration’s early criticism of Bucker and his actions imposed many limited sanctions on some officials. But eventually Biden’s people surrendered and admitted that they had to work with Berkler.
Rubio vows to further propose alliances, saying “allies” must be treated better. He did not mention human rights.
Rubio said when he left San Salvador: “We are united and have a lot of things.”
