According to an Associated Press report, the government of El Salvador continues to pay for lobbying services in the United States, although the president said he had suspended it.
In August 2020, an Associated Press report revealed that the government of El Salvador had hired lobbyist Robert Stryk and his company Sonoran Policy Group to raise the image of President Nayib Bukele in the United States. The agreement in question was signed by Peter Dumas, director of the State Intelligence Agency (OIE) and involved a cost of $ 450,000 in public funds.
However, at that time the presidency claimed that the contract had not been approved by Bukele, so it was canceled.
This Saturday, the Associated Press revealed that Stryk has maintained his contract with the Salvadoran government, contradicting the government’s version of Nayib Bukele’s claim that the lobbying services agreement had been canceled.
Continue reading: Bukele hires for $ 780,000 a company created three weeks ago to improve its image in the United States
According to reports sent to the U.S. government, the firm Sonoran Policy Group has kept its job, making calls to congressmen and has so far received $ 214,000 in OIE payments, though Bukele said that this service no longer existed.
Sonoran reported to the U.S. Department of Justice. UU. That he organized calls with six legislative advisers from the Republican side in which Dumas participated in his capacity as a Salvadoran official. Among them were talks with congressman assistants Kevin McCarthy, leader of the Republican minority in the House of Representatives, and Rick Crawford, who is on the Intelligence committee.
In fact, a day after one of those calls, Crawford posted a tweet expressing his support for “friends and partners” in the fight against corruption like Bukele.
See: Bukele, Trump’s unconditional ally, hires Bill Clinton’s sphere adviser
These contracts were signed at a time when the authoritarian character of Nayib Bukele’s government was becoming increasingly known, leading to influential congressmen from both parties in the United States signing letters condemning their attacks on the press. the opposition and its progressive dismantling of democracy.
Six months before the contract, in February Bukele commanded an armed take on the Legislative Assembly. Also in February, he said at a meeting of IDB governors that if foreign attendees lived in El Salvador, they would also want to burn the country’s politicians alive. In April, he challenged rulings in the Constitutional Court and continued to order the illegal capture of Salvadorans who allegedly violated quarantine, and favored the military response over medical in the early stages of the pandemic. In August, he joked that if he had been a dictator he would have ordered the magistrates of the Constitutional Chamber to be shot.
These and many more facts have earned him harsh criticism that weakens democracy and prepares the country for authoritarianism with clear abuses of power and serious signs of corruption. To avoid this damage to his image, far from dismissing these criticisms, he chose to hire intriguers in Washington, to clean his face in front of his main partner, the United States, who at the time was indifferent to his abuses.
Since January 20, however, with the Biden administration, it seems to be approaching a more critical role of the White House in the face of Bukele’s visible abuses of power and his systematic harassment of opponents.