UNITED NATIONS, New York – El Salvador’s President, in his address to the United Nations General Assembly, warned that the world is entering a “dark period” and “moving toward a scary inflection point.”
Bukele told the assembly that while his country is small, it serves as a positive example for other nations. He emphasized that El Salvador “does not imprison our opposition; we do not censor opinions; we do not confiscate property from those who think differently.”
“We do not arrest people for expressing their ideas,” Bukele said. “In El Salvador, your freedom of expression, as well as your private property, will always be protected.”
“In El Salvador, we prioritize the safety of our honest citizens over the comfort of criminals,” he added. “Some say that we have imprisoned thousands, but the reality is that we have freed millions.”
Elon Musk took to the social media platform X to praise Bukele for his “great speech,” highlighting the president’s comments about “the dark times coming” and the need to “shelter from the coming storm to maintain hope.” Bukele last week visited Austin, Texas, before his appearance at the United Nations.
“As a Salvadoran, I recognize these symptoms because we have experienced them all,” Bukele said. “We saw the collapse of our nation step by step and we are seeing the same steps, but this time on a global scale.”
Bukele gained international attention after taking a hardline stance on crime in his country. This involved transforming El Salvador’s once-notorious gang problem by constructing a super prison holding tens of thousands of prisoners and empowering authorities – who received expanded powers – to clear the streets of anyone suspected of gang or criminal activity.
Bukele attributed the rapid and significant turnaround to his people remembering “that freedom is something that you take; it isn’t given to us,” and urged others to visit El Salvador and “contribute to our vision.”
“It won’t be easy to do this,” Bukele said. “The next step, in fact, is perhaps harder than the previous steps that we’ve had to take: We have freed our country, but we need to maintain this freedom and do so in a world that is increasingly less free.”
“El Salvador has left its past behind, but we never wish to return to it again,” he added, saying that “it’s not too late to build a bridge and to escape the dust storm.”