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, said three people with knowledge of the decision on Monday.
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 Trump’s hard-line immigration policies that restricted asylum applications, which earned him great U.S. support for his rigid government style in El Salvador, where he is popular. But, like other Trump-friendly world leaders, he faces a difficult escalation for the Biden government, which is trying to undo these policies and signaled that its relationship with El Salvador is under review.
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 of them in Washington and insisted on speaking anonymously in exchange for discussing internal decision-making.
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 this month’s legislative elections, in which he is trying to expand his power base, people said. However, they made an exception for Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno, who met in Washington with senior Biden officials shortly before the Andean country’s presidential election.
El Salvador’s foreign minister, Alexandra Hill Tinoco, said she was unaware of any requests for meetings with US officials during what she described as a short private trip from Bukele to Washington.
“There were no requests, formal or informal, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or our embassy in Washington,” she said.
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.
While the Biden government eventually hopes to involve Bukele in its $ 4 billion plan to tackle the roots of Central American migration, it has serious concerns about its 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.
Bukele took office in 2019 as an independent pledge to rescue El Salvador from the deep divisions left by uncontrolled gang violence and systemic corruption in right and left governments that followed the end of a 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 armed tactics, such as sending troops to surround Congress last year to pressure lawmakers to vote on funding the fight against gangs.