(PresidentialWire.com)- On Monday, President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador attacked the Biden State Department, claiming that his nation only obtained American support to fight crime under President Donald Trump’s administration. At the same time, President Joe Biden has decided to stand with gangsters.
Bukele was reacting to a remark by Biden’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, in which he voiced alarm over El Salvador’s gang crackdown.
Blinken feels new Salvadoran legislation that makes reporting on specific gang operations illegal might lead to attempts to suppress the media, limit reporting on corruption and other subjects of public concern, and muzzle opponents of the Salvadoran administration.
He says the surge in violence and killings committed by the MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs is also very concerning.
Blinken added that the U.S. is committed to assisting El Salvador in its efforts to limit gang proliferation by shoveling $411 million to improve citizen security and help the Salvadoran government in combating gang violence.
The Biden administration is constructing a cutting-edge forensics lab in Nuevo Cuscatlan.
Bukele fought back against Blinken’s claims, saying that the Salvadoran government got most of the significant aid against gang violence during the Trump administration. Biden has been channeling money to “civil society groups” rather than gang-busting.
“I have the receipts,” Bukele stated.
According to the USAID bulletin, funds will be diverted from the Salvadoran National Civilian Police and other law enforcement agencies to promote transparency, combat corruption, and monitor human rights in collaboration with local civil society and human rights organizations.
There are deep concerns with the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly’s May 1st vote to remove the Attorney General and all five magistrates of El Salvador’s Supreme Court’s Constitutional Chamber.
The vote by the legislature to dismiss the Attorney General and Supreme Court judges was denounced by the Biden administration as a power grab by Bukele that would harm El Salvador’s democratic institutions. The move was also condemned by the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations.
Bukele and his allies saw the moves as a necessary act of housecleaning to curb corruption. They claimed that the Salvadoran constitution’s mechanism for dismissing the Attorney General and Supreme Court judges was followed.
Over 9,000 individuals have been detained by El Salvador’s security forces in the last two weeks, utilizing emergency powers given by Congress to combat organized crime in the aftermath of a wave of gang killings. Many of the arrests, according to critics, were arbitrary and targeted underprivileged young people. They also condemned the captives’ terrible living circumstances.
Bukele said the arrests were justified, calling the 9,000 people detained “only a good start” and claiming that the harsh detentions were a necessary deterrence. He claimed that gang members are so used to getting out of jail fast that they see imprisonment as a minor nuisance.
Bukele said that the total number of arrests had risen to 10,094.
In response, he declared that they would be seizing sleeping mats, restricting food, and they won’t be able to see the sun anymore.
“Put an end to the killings right now,” he bellowed.
