El Salvador's president warns of 'new dark era' for humanity in UN speech

By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - El Salvador’s president said Tuesday that "the world has become divided, depressed, worried, hostile and hopeless" and "we are facing a new dark age for humanity” during his speech at the UN General Assembly in New York.

Nayib Bukele said "the free world is no longer free” and lamented that “in some cities in the so-called first world, stores need to secure their products behind glass doors with keys to prevent theft” and “in other cities, the streets no longer belong to the people but have fallen into the hands of the homeless, gangs, organized crime and drugs.”

​​​​​​​"You cannot claim to be a free world if your people are not even free to walk the streets without fear of being harassed, robbed or killed," he said.

Bukele contrasted the global situation with the advances in security achieved in his country and pointed out that El Salvador could become a refuge from the "global storm that is coming."

“As Salvadorans, we recognize these symptoms of decline when we see them because we have been through them all, we lived through the stages of our nation's downfall one by one and we are seeing those stages once again, but this time on a global scale,” Bukele said. "We cannot prevent the dark times that are coming, but what we can do is become a small refuge from the approaching storm and maintain hope," he added.

In March 2022, Bukele began a historic crackdown on gangs, implementing a state of emergency that has for the past 20 months allowed his government to suspend certain civil liberties in order to rapidly end violence in the Central American country. This has sparked criticism from human rights groups who accuse the Bukele administration of widespread abuses in its war against the gangs.

"Some say we have imprisoned thousands, but the reality is that we have freed millions. Now it is the good ones who live free, without fear, with their freedoms and human rights fully respected."