"El Salvador has broken all records," the words of the president-elect, Nayib Bukele, as he greeted the crowd gathered in front of the centenary National Palace. The candidate of Nuevas Ideas has just obtained a second term as the head of the country after sweeping the elections held on Sunday. Preliminary results had indicated that he would receive 85% of the votes in the presidential elections and more than 58 of 60 deputies in the Legislative Assembly. "The entire opposition, together, was pulverized."
Bukele recalled how in 2019, the party that he had founded just two years before, broke from the prevailing two-party system, although it did not have numbers in the Legislative Assembly to "do anything good for the people." Between the ups and downs, he managed his first term, facilitated in 2021 when Nuevas Ideas won the Assembly elections.
The president chose as his main workhorse, security, describing El Salvador as "the safest country in the entire Western Hemisphere." He responded to those who criticize him from abroad, accusing him of piercing the democratic system, that "democracy means the power of the people." And that, in that sense, the polls had just spoken. He also alluded to criticism that his campaign against gangs violated human rights:
What did they say? 'you are violating human rights.' Whose human rights? Those of honest people? No. Maybe we prioritized the human rights of honest people over the rights of criminals. That's the only thing we've done.
"Why should we and our children die so that you are happy that we are respecting your false democracy, that not even you respect?" Bukele snapped at journalists, governments and international organizations.
“Alguna vez se han puesto a pensar por qué los ojos del mundo están sobre un país tan pequeño. ¿Por qué?
Simple y sencillamente: le tienen miedo al poder del ejemplo. Los salvadoreños somos dueños de un país pequeño, aún subdesarrollado. Pero los salvadoreños les hemos enseñado… pic.twitter.com/CQj8qGzt52
— Nuevas Ideas (@nuevasideas) February 5, 2024
Words to Washington
"We want to be friends with everyone," he said in words dedicated specifically to the United States, Spain and the international community as a whole. "We love them and respect them. We don't ask them for anything: we don't ask them for money, we don't ask them for help, we don't ask them for donations, we don't ask them for international help. The only thing we ask of you is respect." In short: trade, tourism and respect.
He also took aim at Washington's international policy during his brief review of Salvadoran history: from the civil war, when the country was "one of those places they chose to fight" the Cold War, through the peace agreements -"they no longer wanted war because they had settled their international problem,"- the continuation of violence -"because the agreement was a farce, we lived in war, bleeding each other,"- the creation of gangs -"some of those displaced by the conflict went to live in ghettos in the United States United and formed gangs" which "Clinton then decided to export"- and the legislation that would have allowed the rise of violence. He even reached his own Administration, ensuring that if he had been guided by international criticism and recipes he would not be "winning the war against the gangs."
"They want to impose atheism on us"
Another highlight of the speech was when he assured that they had to "give glory to God" for the "miracle" they had achieved. "For what are we if not the tools of God? He wanted to heal our country and he healed it through a united people who decided to leave the past behind and take the reins of their own destiny."
"Let us believe in God", he exclaimed after ensuring that "they want to impose even that on us, that we be atheists" and that he respected all faiths. "Let us give him the glory if we want it, what does it bother you?" Immediately, he offered the answer:
Maybe they are affected by the example, maybe the populations of their countries, that have been introduced to atheism, start or believe in God again. You have seen how, thanks to God and this noble and united people, El Salvador went from being the most insecure country to the safest.
And for the future? "We will continue doing the impossible, we will continue showing the world the example of El Salvador."
