According to a report from the site ForeignLobby.com, the Nayib Bukele government signed a $ 1.2 million contract for advisory services with a former high-level diplomat.
After Nayib Bukele signed a $ 1.2 million contract with Arnold & Porter to have a loan negotiation with the International Monetary Fund, Congresswoman Norma Torres, one of his critics fiercest in the United States, questioned the fact and, on his Twitter account, wrote:
“Instead of spending millions of dollars on a damage control lobby, Nayib Bukele should use those dollars to offset the cost of housing and feed thousands of innocent children fleeing corruption and gang violence. in El Salvador “.
As reported by ForeignLobby.com, Bukele hired a lobbyist to minimize the impact of international criticism raised by his style of government. And because of the decisions made in recent weeks that put their relationship with the White House in difficulty.
Bukele has had trouble getting close to Joe Biden’s administration, and his actions take him a little further away from his goal: last week, Bukele had a dispute on social media with Democratic Congresswoman Norma Torres, who co-chairs the Central American caucus at the U.S. Congress. Torres has pointed to Bukele as a “narcissistic dictator” and of not caring about the plight of Salvadoran migrants on the U.S. border.
But Bukele not only attacked Torres, but asked residents of District 35 in California not to vote for her. Something that led to the condemnation of the Hispanic Caucus of the United States Congress, which brings together 37 lawmakers.
Also this week, Bukele refused to receive the U.S. State Department special envoy for the Northern Triangle, Ricardo Zúñiga, despite the fact that he managed a meeting with the president.
The envoy of US President Joe Biden came to El Salvador to meet with officials and other sectors of society, such as businessmen and journalists, in order to provide solutions to the migration crisis generated on the southern border of United States in the face of the arrival of thousands of unaccompanied children.
For the United States, an unaccompanied child is a child under the age of 17, traveling alone, with a coyote, or with a relative other than their parents. Some of the reasons CBP records why children are unaccompanied are because they seek to reunite with their families who are already in the United States and because they are escaping violence.
Today’s newspaper published on April 3 that the number of Salvadorans confiscated this February on the southern border of the United States has exceeded the number recorded last year. In February of fiscal year 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) arrested 1,774 Salvadorans seeking to enter the United States without documents, 28% more than the 1,488 who the office registered in February of fiscal year 2020. on April 4, it was learned that of the 171,000 migrants of various nationalities detained on the southern border of the United States during March, about 4,069 were Salvadorans. Among them 1,569 children traveling unaccompanied; figure that doubles the 770 of March last year and exceeds 1,385 detainees in the same period of 2019.
Torres criticized Bukele for continuing to provoke migration in El Salvador, one of the countries where thousands of migrants come to the border.
Although Bukele denies that more Salvadorans are looking to reach the United States, the truth is that the country continues in the rising numbers reported by the Border Patrol.
For this reason, Zúñiga was sent urgently to this region. In Guatemala he was received by President Alejandro Giammattei, with whom he held private bilateral meetings. Although the meetings were well publicized. In El Salvador, Zúñiga met with Chancellor Alexandra Hill, but no government institution or the Chancellor herself flaunted the visit.