During an unannounced trip to Washington last week, Biden’s government rejected a meeting request with El Salvador’s president, as three critics of the Central American leader among Democrats, three people with knowledge of the decision said Monday .
The trip by Nayib Bukele, who has not been reported before, came after a senior White House official warned in an interview with a Salvadoran news agency that Bukele was very critical of the government in Biden ‘differences’ with him would have.
Bukele was quick to accept former President Trump’s strict immigration policy restricting asylum applications, which gave him much American support for his tough government style in El Salvador, where he is popular. But like other world leaders befriended by Trump, he is facing an upward climb towards the Biden government, which wants to undo the policy and that the relationship with El Salvador is being scrutinized.
The president’s surprise trip amid a pandemic has been a dilemma for U.S. policymakers. They have been given little prior notice and mostly avoid personal meetings due to the coronavirus and because many senior positions remain vacant, say the three people, who are all in Washington and insist on speaking anonymously in exchange for discussing internal decision-making. .
By rejecting Bukele’s request, Biden officials wanted to ensure that Bukele did not try to present any meeting before this month’s legislative election as proof of support, after which he sought to expand his power base. . However, they made an exception for Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno, who met with senior Biden officials shortly before the Andean presidential election in Washington.
El Salvador’s Secretary of State Alexandra Hill Tinoco said she was unaware of any request for meetings with U.S. officials during what she described as a short, private trip through Bukele to Washington.
“There was no formal or informal request by the State Department or our embassy in Washington,” she said.
The three people did not say how the request for a meeting was made. But they said the decision not to meet with Bukele was deliberate.
While the Biden government hopes to eventually involve Bukele in its $ 4 billion plan to attack the root causes of migration from Central America, there are serious concerns about its respect for the rule of law and democracy, the people said. added.
“Clearly, circumstances have changed for Bukele,” said José Miguel Vivanco, the US director of Human Rights Watch in Washington. “His popularity in El Salvador does not detract from the legal investigation in Washington into his report on human rights and respect for the rule of law.”
According to the Western Hemisphere Division of the State Department, Biden’s government is valuable for what he considers to be a strong relationship between El Salvador and the United States, and will work closely with its partners to address challenges in the region. A spokesman declined to comment further.
Bukele took office in 2019 as an independent pledge to save El Salvador from the deep divisions left by uncontrolled gang violence and systemic corruption in right-wing and left-wing governments that followed the end of a 1992 civil war.
According to polls, an overwhelming majority of Salvadorans approve of his harsh approach, acknowledging that he has reduced the high levels of violence, and his allies are expected to win a majority in the congressional vote this month.
But increasingly, Democrats, but also some Republicans, have criticized Bukele for strong arm tactics such as sending troops to Congress last year to pressure lawmakers to vote on funding for the fight against gangs.