Current:Home > MarketsEl Salvador President Nayib Bukele takes his reelection campaign beyond the borders-DB Wealth Institute B2 Reviews & Ratings
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele takes his reelection campaign beyond the borders
lotradecoin market depth insights View Date:2024-12-25 21:17:10
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele took his presidential reelection campaign beyond the tiny Central American country’s borders Wednesday night to capitalize on his rising profile across Latin America.
During a two-hour forum on the platform X, Bukele accused critics of his controversial policies — including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and international institutions like it — of trying to keep El Salvador and other developing nations down.
Bukele was granted a six-month leave from the presidency starting in December to run for reelection — despite a constitutional ban on reelection. Congress approved the president’s selection of his private secretary to be the country’s interim leader.
The Supreme Court, stacked with justices selected by Bukele’s allies in Congress, ruled in 2021 that Bukele could seek a second five-year term in the Feb. 4 election.
Asked Wednesday if he would seek to change the constitution to allow his indefinite reelection, Bukele said he would not.
In April 2023, the commission called on El Salvador to lift the state of emergency instituted in March 2022 that allowed Bukele’s administration to step up its fight against the country’s powerful gangs. The state of emergency suspends some fundamental rights like police having to inform people of the reason for their arrest or give them access to an attorney.
Some 74,000 people have been arrested under Bukele’s war on gangs. Judges later freed more than 7,000 of them.
Human rights groups in El Salvador and abroad have criticized Bukele for the lack of due process and other abuses. But the resulting drop in homicides has cemented support for Bukele among a majority of Salvadorans.
Bukele has declared El Salvador the safest country in Latin America, just a few years after it was listed as one of the world’s deadliest. Many have expressed a willingness to overlook the erosion of checks and balances in exchange for safe neighborhoods.
His exchanges with people from a host of Latin American countries reflected how his success has resonated beyond El Salvador’s borders, even in the face of sometimes withering criticism from the United States and Europe.
His pushback against critics Wednesday echoed his 2023 speech before the United Nations General Assembly, in which he said that if El Salvador had listened to his critics it would return to being the murder capital.
“Today, I come to tell you that that debate is over,” Bukele said at the U.N. “The decisions we took were correct. We are no longer the world death capital and we achieved it in record time. Today we are a model of security and no one can doubt it. There are the results. They are irrefutable.”
Bukele enjoys sky-high rates of approval in El Salvador. He boosted his country’s international image hosting events like the Central American and Caribbean Games in July and the Miss Universe competition in November.
The president has responded brashly to his critics, accusing them of defending gangsters. His success has spurred a host of political aspirants in other Latin American countries from Argentina to Guatemala who promise to emulate his heavy-handed tactics.
On Wednesday, Bukele said that he had spoken with one such foreign politician in a country where the people were fed up with the traditional political parties: Argentina’s newly elected Javier Milei, the self-declared “anarcho-capitalist” who raced to victory campaigning against what he called Argentina’s political caste.
In a two-hour conversation, Bukele said, he told Milei that he would have to confront a system that did not agree with him.
“I told him that I wished him luck, we wish him the best and hope that he can overcome those obstacles, the obstacle of the reality, as well as the obstacle of the system that is going to try to block him and that isn’t going to let him make the changes that he wants to make,” Bukele said.
veryGood! (2658)
Related
- Big Georgia county to start charging some costs to people who challenge the eligibility of voters
- Child trapped between boulders for 9 hours rescued by firefighters in New Hampshire
- Here's What Artem Chigvintsev Is Seeking in Nikki Garcia Divorce
- Partial lunar eclipse to combine with supermoon for spectacular sight across U.S.
- A slain teacher loved attending summer camp. His mom is working to give kids the same opportunity
- A'ja Wilson makes more WNBA history as first player to score 1,000 points in a season
- Get $336 Worth of Tarte Makeup for $55 & More Deals on Top-Sellers Like Tarte Shape Tape & Amazonian Clay
- Flappy Bird returning in 2025 after decade-long hiatus: 'I'm refreshed, reinvigorated'
- Stuffed or real? Photos show groundhog stuck inside claw machine
- The trial date for the New Orleans mayor’s ex-bodyguard has been pushed back to next summer
Ranking
- Conservative are pushing a ‘parental rights’ agenda in Florida school board races. But will it work?
- 2024 Emmys: Why Fans Are Outraged Over The Bear Being Classified as a Comedy
- The trial date for the New Orleans mayor’s ex-bodyguard has been pushed back to next summer
- The Key to Fix California’s Inadequate Water Storage? Put Water Underground, Scientists Say
- Hurricane Ernesto aims for Bermuda after leaving many in Puerto Rico without power or water
- Man accused of trying to kill Trump wrote a book urging Iran to assassinate the ex-president
- TikTokers Matt Howard and Abby Howard Break Silence on Backlash Over Leaving Kids in Cruise Room
- Horoscopes Today, September 14, 2024
Recommendation
-
A weatherman had a panic attack live on air. What it teaches us.
-
'Hacks' star's mom and former SNL cast member slams 'The Bear,' says it's not a comedy
-
Why West Wing's Bradley Whitford Missed Reunion at 2024 Emmys
-
Arrests for illegal border crossings jump 3% in August, suggesting decline may be bottoming out
-
The Sunscreen and Moisturizer Duo That Saved My Skin on a Massively Hot European Vacation
-
Tito Jackson, brother of Michael Jackson and Jackson 5 co-founder, dies at 70
-
Social media is wondering why Emmys left Matthew Perry out of In Memoriam tribute
-
Demi Lovato Shares Whether She Wants Her Future Kids to Have Careers in Hollywood