El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele took aim at billionaire financier George Soros at an event outside Washington DC, accusing him of dictating public policy and laws, according to agency reports.
“Why does he feel entitled to impose his agenda,” he asked at the annual conference of the US Conservative Political Action in Maryland.
Bukele has long had a grouse against Soros, blaming him for engaging in “influence peddling” in El Salvador through his Open Society Foundation. He had accused several left-wing publications of running a smear campaign against him, campaigns that he claimed were funded by Soros.
Bukele is on record as saying that “In all Latin American countries there are media and ‘journalists’ paid by Soros. In reality they are not journalists, they are political activists with a defined and perverse global agenda.”
His views find echo among many conservatives in America, who appreciate his tough stance on crime, said the BBC.
Elon Musk is known to have accused Soros of influencing the appointment of lenient district attorneys, thereby worsening the problem of crime.
Bukele has cracked down on criminal gangs in his country, jailing hundreds and holding them without trial. He has urged the next US president to “overcome dark forces” that he claimed, were trying to take over the country. Many US cities are in decline and “had become places where crime and drugs have become the daily norm.”
“How many young people have you lost on the streets of Philadelphia or San Francisco to fentanyl”, he asked, “can you imagine how we will be in 5, 10, 15 years?”
He blamed “global elites” for the rot, describing them as an oppressive enemy with power over the media and politics. BBC reported that Bukele himself is controversial, being re-elected for a second term as president this month by ensuring the constitutional court was packed with his supporters. El Salvador’s constitution does not allow for second terms for presidents.
