El Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele has refused to meet with a visiting U.S. diplomat this week, according to two Central American aides, on what he sees as a pattern of fighting between Democrats and the Biden government. .
Bukele’s decision not to meet with Ricardo Zuniga, the authority of the Biden government in the so-called Northern Triangle countries in Central America, follows a similar piece he believes from US officials during an unannounced trip to Washington received in February.
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It also comes days after Bukele’s government awarded a $ 1.2 million contract to the former top foreign ministry diplomat in an effort to improve ties with the new US president.
Zuniga traveled to El Salvador on Wednesday after talks in Guatemala focused on immigration amid an increase in child migrants at the U.S. border. Upon arrival, he immediately announced a $ 2 million contribution in the United States to an international commission seeking to step up the fight against corruption, which Biden officials consider one of the leading causes of illegal immigration.
U.S. officials have told local reporters in the capital of San Salvador that Zuniga hopes to see Bukele before returning to Washington on Thursday.
But Bukele told their assistants that he would not meet any Biden officials until the US mitigated the criticism, and according to the two people doubting his commitment to democracy and the rule of law, the two people talked about the condition of anonymity, given the diplomatic sensitivity. .
The two specifically said that Bukele was angry over Foreign Minister Ned Price’s remarks on Monday that the US was looking forward to Bukele’s a strong separation of powers where it was eroded and what his government’s commitment to shows transparency and accountability. “
The Salvadoran press office did not respond to a request for comment.
Price’s remarks follow a conversation between Bukele and one of his fiercest American critics, Representative Norma Torres, a Democrat who chairs the Central American caucus in Congress.
In a series of tweets, Torres accused Bukele of behaving like a ‘narcissistic dictator’, indifferent to the plight of Central American migrants who take great risks to reach the US.
She attached a photo that was widely circulated in 2019 showing the bodies of a Salvadoran migrant and his daughter lying lifeless in the Rio Grande on the Texas border.
“Send me glasses so I can see the suffering of your people through your eyes,” wrote Torres, who came to the United States from Guatemala as a child.
Bukele pointed out that he was not even in office at the time of death, which occurred during a previous boom in Central American migration under the Trump administration. He encouraged Salvadoran and other immigrants living in the Southern California district of Torres to run for office.
“She does not work for you, but to keep our countries underdeveloped,” he wrote.
Despite all his belligerence, the 39-year-old Bukele is by far the most popular politician in Central America, a region plagued by corruption and crime. His New Ideas party concluded large-scale legislative elections last month and Bukele, who cultivates the image of a hip pragmatist, sought to harness China’s growing influence in the region to tackle new foreign investment.
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But he has struggled to get closer to the Biden government, which wants to undo Trump’s tough immigration policy that restricts asylum applications, which Bukele accepted in exchange for strong American support for his tough government style.
With U.S. policy currently under scrutiny, El Salvador last month appointed former Secretary of State for Political Affairs Tom Shannon to involve Bukele’s many critics, according to foreign lobbying records from the U.S. Department of Justice released this week is.
The $ 1.2 million contract with Arnold & Porter, signed by Bukele’s office on March 25, aims to strengthen El Salvador’s relations with the US and multilateral institutions at a time when the country reportedly $ 1.3 billion in aid from the International Monetary Negotiations. Fund.
“President Bukele is the most successful, politically stable and important leader in Central America,” Shannon told The Associated Press in a statement on Thursday. “It befits the US and El Salvador to have strong and positive working relationships. It is my hope to be able to build those relationships.”
Shannon, who served as acting secretary of state for two weeks before taking the post at the beginning of the Trump administration, resigned from the State Department in 2018 after a career that included long jobs in Latin America . He has been close to Zuniga from their days together in Brazil, when Shannon was US Ambassador from 2010 to 2013 and Zuniga served as political adviser.
Respected by both Democrats and Republicans, Shannon brought Arnold & Porter a roster of clients for lobbying that includes the governments of Argentina and Ecuador.
The law firm was also appointed by the Honduran government in 2019 in what federal prosecutors say was an attempt to set aside an investigation into drug trafficking by President Juan Orlando Hernandez, brother. Shannon played no role in the contract, with the aim of advising Honduras on financing in the international market. But shortly after the agreement was signed, Honduras lawyers issued New York prosecutors to warn of possible “collateral consequences” for their case over U.S. relations with the country, according to recent court documents.
El Salvador’s hiring of Shannon took place before the final duel with Washington.
The two Salvadoran assistants said they trusted Shannon would be able to build support in Washington by highlighting the lasting ties between the two countries. The most important of them are the more than 3 million Salvadorans living in the US, many of whom fled during the US-funded civil war in the 1980s and who are returning money which is a major driver for the dollarized Salvadoran economy.
The contract with Arnold & Porter was first reported on Wednesday by Foreign Lobby Report, an online publication that follows the influence industry in Washington.
Bukele took office in 2019 as an independent promise to save El Salvador from the deep divisions left by uncontrolled gang violence and systematic corruption in both right-wing and left-wing governments that followed the end of a bloody civil war in 1992.
But increasingly, Democrats – and some Republicans – have criticized him for strong-arm tactics such as sending troops to Congress last year to pressure lawmakers to vote on funding for the fight against gangs.
Relations with the Biden government got off to a stormy start when U.S. officials refused to see him when he traveled to Washington unannounced in February, according to three people familiar with the decision.
Bukele vehemently denied that he wanted a meeting with Biden officials during what he described as a private visit, which only came to light when it was reported by the AP.
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Bukele has been lobbying since last fall and has signed contracts worth more than $ 2.8 million with four lobbyists, including now Arnold & Porter.
But he allowed one of them, a $ 450,000 lobbying contract with Sonoran Policy Group, to expire on Feb. 14, according to foreign lobbying reports. Sonoran is run by Robert Stryk, who during the Trump presidency built one of the most successful lobbying firms representing clients before sanctions or with a bruised reputation in Washington, such as the governments of Venezuela and Somalia and supporters of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.