Nayib Bukele was interviewed on June 25 by the magazine TIME during a meeting held at the Presidential House in San Salvador.
Bukele, who won re-election in February and began his second term, spoke about issues related to security in his government, such as the fight against gangs and the fall in the homicide rate in El Salvador.
In the past, President Bukele had declared that El Salvador was the safest country in Latin Americaso he emphasized his position and explained how he has achieved this.
Furthermore, when questioned about whether this new security is sustainable, the Salvadoran president stated that it can and He also touched on the issue of the state of emergency imposed in the country.
“There are two questions. Yes, it is sustainable and it can exist without a state of exception. Now, everything that is made by human beings, and I have mentioned this before, requires maintenance. There is nothing that is built by human beings, whether it is called infrastructure, whether it is called a cohesive society, whether it is called security. Everything that is built or made by human beings requires maintenance, and the moment that maintenance is lost, it falls apart.”
“Is it sustainable? Yes. Does it require maintenance? Yes. Can that maintenance be done without the state of exception? Yes. Why don’t we remove it right now?” Because we are not yet ready to remove it, but we know that it is an exceptional regime and therefore we hope to remove it as soon as possible that the reality on the ground allows us.when we can maintain it without a regime of exception,” he said.
Read also: Bukele says the criminal justice system he implemented in El Salvador is “the best in the world”
Regarding the state of emergency in El Salvador, Nayib Bukele mentioned the metrics or conditions that the country would have to meet for this extraordinary measure to come to an end.
“By getting 85% of the gang members off the streets, that pyramidal structure that is the gangs, with the leaders, then all the gangs, the cliques, etc. That whole structure has collapsed. Some, the vast majority of gang members are in prison, there are some who fled the country and are in other countries waiting to return, and there is another group that is hiding. Why do we know this? Because every day we arrest a number of gang members, every day.”
“We estimate that there are still between 8,000 and 9,000 gang members on the streets. Getting 100% may be impossible because we don’t have a census, they can flee, they can be in other countries and we think they are here, but there are still too many gang members free.not to operate, they are definitely not operating, but to regroup in case we take the pressure off.”
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“If we remove more gang members from the streets, they won’t have enough to come together again, because if there are 3,000, 4,000 gang members, they won’t have enough to form four gangs. It’s difficult. It’s not like we’re going to remove the police either. Always, at some point in the near future, in the short term, we hope to be able to remove the regime of exception, to return to normality within the constitutional term. and to be able to maintain the peace that we have achieved with simple judicial and normal judicial activity,” Bukele concluded.
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