A recipe of its own that heals, but that must be followed to the letter for it to give results.
That was the central idea of the speech that Nayib Bukele gave this Saturday from the balcony of the National Palace, upon assuming the presidency of El Salvador for a second term.
In the message, which followed the one he launched at his first inauguration in 2019, he announced that in his next five years at the head of the government The priority will be the economy.
And he hinted that, on the path to economic recovery, Salvadorans will have to face some difficult measures. They must take a “bitter medicine” and follow the instructions “to the letter”so that the achievements in this matter are like those obtained in security in the last five years.
Below we summarize the most notable phrases of the speech in which Bukele also made reference to an opposition “insignificant but furious”thanked the Salvadoran people for their support, and thanked God, his wife Gabriela Rodríguez and his brothers for their help, and said that “all eyes are on El Salvador today.”
1. “Without the success of the war against gangs, many of those who see us today would be dead”
As expected, Bukele emphasized the results of his security policy, which was the center of his first term as president and what led, to a large extent, to winning the second, sweeping the polls on February 4. .
Thus, he insisted that homicides were reduced by 97%, returning to El Salvador “the safest country in the hemisphere.”
“In five years we turned around a situation that had not been resolved for more than half a century, with more than 70,000 terrorists who controlled the country and who left more dead than the armed conflict,” he continued.
The results, however, did not free him from criticism. His security policy accumulates hundreds of complaints of human rights violationsfrom arbitrary arrests to abuse and torture in prisons.
“Without the success of this war against the gangs, many of those who see us on television and social networks would already be dead,” Bukele maintained meanwhile.
2. “The opposition continues to defend a democracy that only left us murdered”
“The opposition, which is numerically insignificant but rabid, continues to defend an institution, a democracy, as they say, that only left us mothers, grandparents, friends and brothers murdered with impunity,” Bukele continued, insisting on the issue of security.
With this, he also underlined the legitimacy of his second government, questioned by many critics who They argue that it forced the seams of the Constitution to be able to be president again and they assure that this second term is the consolidation of the country’s authoritarian drift.
In addition to insisting on his support at the polls, in his speech Bukele assured that “100% of the governments have recognized this government.” And as proof of this, he referred to the presence in Plaza Gerardo Barrios of “more international representatives than ever.”
“We decided to make our own recipe. “You need courage, you need to take risks, at all levels,” he concluded.
To apply his own recipe, in this new five-year term Bukele will also have the support of a Legislative Assembly of 60 deputies and over which he has 95% control.
In the last plenary session of the outgoing Assembly, on April 29, it gave the incoming legislature the power to change the Constitution expeditiously.
So the new Assembly, which began sessions on May 1, could at any time open the door to indefinite presidential reelection or extend the duration of the terms of any official in power, among other issues.
3. “In this new treatment to heal the economy, we may also have to take bitter medicine”
“Now that we have fixed the most urgent thing, which was security, we are going to focus fully on the important problems, starting with the economy,” said Bukele, anticipating what will be his government’s priority in the next five years.
“Salvadoran society is still sick, but it no longer has cancer,” He continued, referring to the so-called gangs that for decades terrorized and bled the country. “He has already been cured of the gangs, and now he has to cure himself of the bad economy.”
But that will not be an easy path, he warned. “In this new treatment to heal the economy, perhaps we also have to take bitter medicine.”
And it is not a minor challenge. Despite the increase in tourism in response to improvements in security, the The general economy remains stagnant, without structural reforms, highly indebted and highly dependent on remittances.
On the one hand, that of El Salvador has been for the fifth consecutive year the economy that has grown the least in the region. While Costa Rica’s grows between 4.5 and 5%, according to data from the Central Reserve Bank, El Salvador’s grew by 2.2% in 2023.
Likewise, more is imported than exported—what is sold abroad, especially to the United States, are textile articles produced in maquiladora companies—which led the country to have a trade balance deficit last year. of more than $8,000 million dollars.
And according to data until September 2023 from the Central Reserve Bank and the Ministry of Finance, the public debt amounts to $19,612.42 million dollars, to which must be added a pension debt balance of $9,010 million.
To this we must add a ever-widening social gap, which for the majority of Salvadorans is made sustainable by informal self-employment.
4. “The people must defend the decisions made tooth and nail, without hesitation”
According to Bukele, to face such a challenge and for the economy to improve, three elements will be needed: “God’s guidance, the tireless work of the government and the people once again defending tooth and nail each of the decisions that are taken (…), without hesitation.”
Likewise, he asked the Salvadorans abandon what he called “the failure mentality.”
“It is also urgent that we change something else: the idea that we deserve only the bad and the ugly. To complain when things change for the better. “I call that the mentality of failure and we must combat it ourselves.”
And to do this, he advised: “Do not listen to the voices that want to poison you.”
5. “We are not just changing a country, we are changing a paradigm”
Bukele asked those present not to “lose perspective.”
“We are not just changing a country, we are changing a paradigm,” he explained.
“Little by little, we began to create something much more significant: a mirror where all of Latin America sees itself now,” he stressed.
The president is no stranger to the region’s politicians who aspire to follow, at least in terms of security, what has been called the “Bukele model.”
Of representatives from Latin America, the president of Argentina, Javier, was present at the investiture. Milei; the one from Ecuador, Daniel Noboa; that of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves; and that of Paraguay, Santiago Peña, among others.
All of them paraded along the red carpet that led to the National Palace and on which they also marched at a firm pace and as a demonstration of force, nearly 2,000 personnel from the Armed Forces, the Army, the Air Force and the National Navy.
Also attending were King Felipe VI of Spain and a representative of the chinese governmentMinister of Tourism Sun Yeli.
It is the government of the Asian country that financed the brand new National Library of El Salvador – which stands next to the National Palace – and that will pay for some of the construction plans that promise to monopolize the spotlight of this five-year period.
Also present was a United States delegationheaded by the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, who met with Bukele the day before to reaffirm the collaboration between both countries in the new stage.
A stage that Bukele defined as “rebirth”, a moment in which “You have to defend the legacy like a lion”and that its critics assure that the authoritarian drift will take hold.
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