The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, positioned his country as a place of drastic changes in terms of security during his speech at the 79th United Nations General Assembly, where he took the opportunity to label it as a "refuge" against the insecurity experienced in the world.
"Some say we have incarcerated thousands, but the reality is that we have liberated millions," defended the Central American president his security strategy.
Bukele stated that "today, the world is looking at the example of El Salvador and asking, how can a country rise so fast? But perhaps they should be asking a different question, how is the rest of the world falling so fast?"
"While El Salvador became safer, the world became more unsafe," he stated at the important plenary.
Bukele swept the elections in El Salvador held last February, ensuring a second term until June 1, 2029.
The former mayor and 42-year-old businessman, who bases his popularity on his measures against gang violence and the reduction of crime and delinquency in communities, is the first Salvadoran president to be re-elected since democracy was established in the country.
After more than four years in power, of which the last two have been under a state of emergency in which constitutional guarantees have been suspended, his war against the feared gangs has left more than 75,000 people in prison, while the number of murders on the streets has dramatically decreased.
On the other hand, it is estimated that out of that total, several thousand people have been unjustly imprisoned, judged without any procedural guarantees, with reports of mistreatment, torture, disappearances, and deaths documented by organizations such as Human Rights Watch.
Complete intervention of Nayib Bukele at the UN:
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