The Biden team and Democrats in Congress are intensifying their campaign against the popular Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who worked with the previous U.S. administration on limiting migration to the United States.
Democrat lawmakers, the Biden administration, and their mainstream media allies in the U.S. deemed Bukele (pictured) an authoritarian after his New Ideas party’s supermajority in the Salvadoran legislature removed all five magistrates of the Supreme Court’s constitutional chamber and the attorney general over corruption allegations.
Bukele’s position on immigration, particularly his decision to work with former U.S. President Donald Trump to reuse migration from El Salvador, has drawn the ire of Democrats and pro-immigration advocates in the U.S.
In mid-March, President Bukele told Fox News soaring migration levels at the U.S. southern border are bad for America and even worse for Latin America because it extracts the people vital to building the solid financial conditions that would keep them in their home country.
Echoing other Latin American leaders, Bukele also indicated recently that President Biden’s policies are fueling the border crisis by incentivizing an exodus of people from Central America, the primary source of the migrant surge.
The majority of the Salvadoran public, including members of the country’s diaspora in the United States, has come out in support of the Bukele and his party’s move to replace the judges and the attorney general.
Still, the Biden Administration, Democrats in Congress, and the U.S. mainstream media continue to attack President Bukele as an authoritarian.
In a report to Congress leaked earlier this month, President Joe Biden’s State Department accused a member of Bukele’s cabinet and one of his former ministers of being corrupt, raising the possibility of sanctions against the individuals.
More recently, Biden’s U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced last Friday that it was redirecting assistance for government institutions in the small Central American country of over 6.5 million to civil society groups that may have links to the opposition.
Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress have threatened to take additional actions against the Bukele administration, potentially impacting the Central American government’s cooperation with the United States on border security issues.
On Sunday, Politico reported:
El Salvador’s president is an authoritarian, whose allies recently dismissed five Supreme Court justices as well as the attorney general to seize control of the top court.
[…]
Last week, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Bukele and his allies’ actions jeopardize U.S. aid, trade relations, access to visas and U.S. support for financing El Salvador from the International Monetary Fund, Inter-American Development Bank and World Bank.
USAID announced last Friday that it was steering United States aid away from Bukele’s government. The Biden administration has close ties to left-of-center progressives groups in El Salvador that may benefit from USAID’s decision.
In a statement, USAID Administrator Samantha Power declared:
USAID has deep concerns regarding the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly’s May 1st vote to remove the Attorney General and all five magistrates of the Constitutional Chamber of El Salvador’s Supreme Court and larger concerns about transparency and accountability.
In response, USAID is redirecting assistance away from these institutions, the National Civilian Police and the Institute for Access to Public Information.
This funding will now be used for promoting transparency, combating corruption, and monitoring human rights in partnership with local civil society and human rights organizations.
According to the Biden administration, gang violence is one of the root causes of migration from Central America to the United States. El Salvador is home to the violent street gang MS-13, which also operates in the United States.
“The United States remains firmly committed to supporting democratic governance as we partner to improve economic and security conditions and to address the root causes of irregular migration from Central America,” the USAID chief proclaimed.
Yet, the Biden administration is taking U.S. aid away from one of the public security institutions in El Salvador. There are some signs that the recent attacks against Bukele by Biden’s team and Democrats may be pushing the president of the small Central American country towards U.S. rival China.
The U.S. military has repeatedly expressed concern over China’s growing influence in Latin America.
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