El Salvador’s Bukele slams censorship as he touts his country’s turnaround: ‘We have freed millions’

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele in his speech before the United Nations General Assembly warned that society is “moving toward a scary inflection point” as the world goes through a “dark period.” 

Bukele told the General Assembly that while his country is small, it has proven a great example for other nations to follow, highlighting that it does “not imprison our opposition; we do not censor opinions; we do not confiscate property from those who think differently.”

“We do not arrest people for expressing their ideas,” Bukele said. “In El Salvador, your freedom of expression, as well as your private property, will always be protected.”

“In El Salvador, we prioritize the safety of our honest citizens over the comfort of criminals,” he added. “Some say that we have imprisoned thousands, but the reality is that we have freed millions.” 

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El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele addresses the 79th General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, Sept. 24, 2024. (Reuters/Eduardo Munoz)

Elon Musk took to social media platform X to praise Bukele for his “great speech,” highlighting the portion in which the president discussed “the dark times coming” and the need to “shelter from the coming storm to maintain hope.” Bukele last week toured the Tesla Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, ahead of his appearance at the United Nations. 

“Some say that we have imprisoned thousands, but the reality is that we have freed millions.” 

“As a Salvadoran, I recognize these symptoms because we have experienced them all,” Bukele said. “We saw the collapse of our nation step by step and we are seeing the same steps, but this time on a global scale.” 

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukel at the Tesla Gigafactory, in Austin, Texas, Sept. 20, 2024. (Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia/Handout via Reuters)

Bukele rose to international prominence after clamping down severely on his country’s crime problem, transforming what was once the “murder capital of the world” by building a super prison that holds tens of thousands of prisoners and allowing authorities – who received expanded powers – to clear the streets of anyone even suspected of gang or criminal activity.

Bukele attributed the swift and significant turnaround to his people remembering “that freedom is something that you take; it isn’t given to us,” going a step further and urging others to come and see El Salvador and “contribute to our vision.” 

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A general view shows the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, on Feb. 1, 2023. (Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia/Handout via Reuters)

“It won’t be easy to do this,” Bukele said. “The next step, in fact, is perhaps harder than the previous steps that we’ve had to take: We have freed our country, but we need to maintain this freedom and do so in a world that is increasingly less free.”

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“El Salvador has left its past behind, but we never wish to return to it again,” he added, saying that “it’s not too late to build a bridge and to escape the dust storm.”