MIAMI (AP) – The Biden government declined a request for a meeting with the president of El Salvador on an unannounced trip to Washington last week, while criticism of the Central American leader is growing among Democrats, three people said on Monday. with knowledge of the decision.
Nayib Bukele’s trip, which was not previously reported, came after a senior White House official warned in an interview with a highly critical Salvadoran news outlet in Bukele that the Biden government hoped to have “differences” with him.
Bukele was quick to embrace former President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration policies, restricting asylum applications, which earned him great U.S. support for his rigid government style in El Salvador, where he is popular. But, like other world leaders aided by Trump, he faces a steep climb turning to Biden government, which is trying to undo these policies and signaled that its relationship with El Salvador is being revised.
The president’s surprise trip in the midst of a pandemic posed a dilemma for US lawmakers. They have been given little notice and are avoiding face-to-face meetings due to the coronavirus and because many important positions remain vacant, said the three people, all in Washington and insisted on speaking anonymously in exchange for discussing internal decisions. do.
In rejecting Bukele’s request, Biden officials wanted to ensure that Bukele did not try to praise any meeting as a show of support before the parliamentary elections later this month, where he is trying to expand his power base, people said. However, they made an exception for Ecuadorean President Lenín Moreno, who met in Washington with senior Biden officials 11 days before the Andean country’s presidential election.
Bukele insisted that the trip was private and that he did not request any meetings with Biden officials.
What “president in the world will take a trip with his wife and daughter to sit in Washington and ask for random meetings to be held immediately? It doesn’t even make sense, ”he said in a text message.
The three people did not say how the meeting request was made. But they said the decision not to meet Bukele was a deliberate one.
Although the Biden government eventually hopes to involve Bukele in its $ 4 billion plan to tackle the root causes of migration from Central America, he has serious concerns about his respect for the rule of law and democracy, people added.
“It is clear that conditions have changed for Bukele,” said José Miguel Vivanco, director for the Americas at Human Rights Watch in Washington. “His popularity in El Salvador does not exempt him from legitimate scrutiny in Washington about his human rights record and respect for the rule of law.”
The Western Hemisphere section of the State Department said the Biden government values what it considers a strong relationship between El Salvador and the United States and will work closely with its partners to address the region’s challenges. A spokesman declined further comment.
During the visit to Washington, Bukele met with Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States, said Chancellor Alexandra Hill, who did not accompany the president on the trip.
The OAS, which last year announced it would send an observation mission to El Salvador for the February 28 parliamentary elections, did not respond to a request for comment or make any statement about the visit. Almagro is known for tweeting regularly about his meetings with visiting dignitaries and on the same day that he met Bukele he promoted his participation in a Zoom conference call with diplomats from Colombia.
Bukele took office in 2019 as an independent pledge to rescue El Salvador the deep divisions left by uncontrolled gang violence and systemic corruption in right and left governments that followed the end of a bloody civil war in 1992.
Polls indicate that the overwhelming majority of Salvadorans approve of their tough approach, which is credited with reducing high levels of violence, and their allies are expected to win a majority in this month’s Congressional vote.
But more and more Democrats, but also some Republicans, have criticized Bukele for his strong armed tactics, such as sending troops to surround Congress last year to pressure lawmakers to vote on funding the fight against gangs.
Over the weekend, two House Democrats, Rep. Norma Torres and Rep. Albio Sires, chairman of the Chamber’s Foreign Affairs subcommittee for Latin America, sent a letter to Bukele urging him “not to provoke divisions in the interest of earnings. politicians”.
The letter was motivated by the murder, on January 31, of two individuals who were returning from a demonstration by Bukele’s opponents of the left-wing FMLN party. The police arrested two members of the FMLN and a bodyguard who works for the Ministry of Health as suspects.
Both Bukele and his opponents took advantage of the confusing incident, which is being investigated, to accuse each other of inciting political violence.
“It seems that the dying parties put their final plan into practice,” wrote Bukele shortly after the killings, responding to criticism on opponents’ social media that his rhetoric was to blame for the deaths. “They are so desperate not to lose their privileges and corruption.”
The Biden government rescinded Trump-era bilateral deals last week with El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, which demanded that asylum seekers on the United States’ border with Mexico go to one of the Central American countries and seek their claims there.
Legislation passed last year and supported by Democrats restricts US foreign aid to El Salvador to finance the purchase of US military equipment. The State Department is also due to present in six months a public list of corrupt individuals in Central America subject to sanctions, a move that could include some of the region’s most powerful politicians.
Juan González, senior director of the National Security Council for the Western Hemisphere, said last month that the Biden government hoped to have “differences” with the president of El Salvador and that any leader who did not want to fight corruption would not be considered an ally of the USA.
González’s comments were of added weight because they were the first as head of the White House policy for Latin America and because they were made in an interview with El Faro, a frequent target of Bukele.
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Joshua Goodman on Twitter: @APJoshGoodman