For Government Special Envoy Joe Biden, the visit to the country has been fruitful and has delivered important messages from the White House to El Salvador.
The Biden government’s special envoy for the Northern Triangle, Ricardo Zúñiga, confirmed that he was unable to establish a relationship with President Nayib Bukele on the first day of his visit to El Salvador.
“Yes, we asked for the meeting, we didn’t receive it, I don’t know how it was done,” said the diplomat who will oversee US foreign policy for Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
However, he did not say why he had not met with the Salvadoran president. Zúñiga confined himself to saying that on such a tight schedule it is normal for some of the scheduled meetings to be missed, and on the reasons why he cannot meet, he said that “he will have to ask for the presidency.”
However, for the special envoy of the Biden government, the visit to the country was fruitful and managed to deliver the important messages from the White House to El Salvador.
This message is that democratic governance is central to the connection between El Salvador and the United States. In addition, the fight against corruption is central to his country’s plan to reduce irregular migration.
SEE ALSO: Joe Biden’s Envoy to the Northern Triangle is not meeting with Nayib Bukele
For this reason, he reinforced the message given on his first day in El Salvador: that the model of an institution with international support and funding is central to be able to strengthen the fight against illegal crimes, which is in the case of the country CICIES . .
On Wednesday, he announced that the United States will donate $ 2 million to CICIES to continue the fight against corruption in El Salvador. Yesterday, the Commission stated that it had sent 12 notifications of alleged corruption in 5 state institutions to the Public Prosecution Service, although it did not say the cases.
Zúñiga also welcomed civil society’s proposal to strengthen the CICIES with more independence from the Presidency, give it more financial autonomy, and give it more powers to prosecute in corruption trials.
However, President Bukele has already announced that he opposes this initiative. In view of the above, the White House envoy limited himself to saying that it is a “sovereign decision” of El Salvador.
SEE ALSO: United States Allocates $ 2 Million To Strengthen Commission Against Impunity
Democracy will be essential
For Ricardo Zúñiga, democracy and the rule of law are fundamental pillars of what he calls “preconditions” for Salvadorans to have prosperity and social mobility and thereby avoid or reduce irregular migration.
And one of the points he emphasized most in his conversation with Salvadoran journalists is precisely the respect for freedom of the press.
The White House envoy expressed concern at the pressures facing the media, adding that journalists play a vital role in democratic culture, something that should be reinforced in Washington’s interest. He also said the US government is using journalistic reports from Salvadoran media to support its views and analysis on El Salvador and its democracy.
SEE ALSO: CICIES has sent 12 cases of possible corruption to the prosecutor’s office