by Arjun Singh
President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Thursday that the United States needs to incarcerate criminals to stop the rise in violent crime, akin to his policies.
Bukele, who recently won reelection in a landslide with over 84% of the vote, was visiting the United States to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a gathering of American and international conservative figures in the Washington, D.C., area. Bukele spoke with the DCNF backstage after delivering a keynote address that targeted left-wing and globalist ideologies as well as implored the world to follow his example of crime reduction.
“Incarcerate the criminals,” Bukele told the DCNF in response to a question about how the U.S. should reduce homicide rates in major cities. Bukele has pursued a policy of mass incarceration of gang members, which has been criticized by human rights observers but has led to a dramatic reduction in crime rates across the country, with the murder rate dropping by 70% in 2023.
In his speech to the conference, Bukele implored the United States to adopt tough-on-crime policies amid violence and drug use in major metropolitan cities.
“How many young people have you lost to the streets of Philadelphia or San Francisco to fentanyl? Did we see these apocalyptic sights 15, ten, five years ago? Can you imagine how it will be in the next five, ten, 15 years? The same thing was happening in El Salvador,” Bukele said, before describing his strategy of mass incarceration. He strongly criticized the policies of left-wing district attorneys and judges in American cities, who have often embraced alternatives to pre-trial confinement that critics argue lead to criminals being released to commit more crimes.
“These corrupt judges and prosecutors are setting the gang members free,” Bukele noted, adding that “it isn’t just the gangs. The corrupt system is working in tandem with the international community, the NGOs, and of course the fake news…the unelected bureaucrats are trying to instate public policy.”
Apart from crime, Bukele’s speech to the conference also discussed economic policy and taxation, whereby he criticized high taxes in the United States and the Federal Reserve’s printing of money. “You pay high taxes only to uphold the illusion that you are funding the government, which you are not…the government is funded by money printing, paper backed by paper. A bubble that will inevitably burst. The situation is even worse than it seems.”
“If most Americans and the world were to become aware of this farce, confidence in your currency would be lost.”
Bukele also specifically addressed George Soros, a Hungarian-American billionaire who has financed many left-wing causes in the United States and abroad, as being a source of problems for both countries.
“Why does he feel entitled to impose his agenda? Let me tell you something: Soros and his cronies hit a brick wall in El Salvador. Thank god, and all the glory be to him, Salvadoreans are now immune to his influence. Nobody believes his lies over there,” Bukele noted, to great applause from the audience at CPAC.
Bukele claimed that democratic action to elect conservative leaders was essential to solving the problems of crimes. “Put up a fight, because, in the end, it will be worth it. It has been for us. You will have your country back,” Bukele said.
Regarding the 2024 presidential election in the United States, Bukele also told the DCNF that he “prefers Trump” over President Joe Biden.
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Arjun Singh is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Nayib Bukele” by Noticias Telemundo.
