Bukele is honored in a Costa Rica that is experiencing its most violent years

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, was decorated on Monday in Costa Rica by his counterpart Rodrigo Chaves, just at a time when the country is fighting against high rates of homicides that have reached historic levels in the last two years.

While Chaves highlighted the virtues of the Salvadoran president in reducing the levels of insecurity and violence in his country, Costa Rica is still trying to ensure that this year it does not reach the 906 homicides that were recorded the previous year, the most violent year in its history and that He stole that title from 2022, which had closed with 654.

Data from the Costa Rican Judicial Investigation Agency report 757 murders as of November 11, 31 less than the same day the previous year.

Bukele assured in San José, the Costa Rican capital, that his country is the second safest in the Western Hemisphere behind Canada.

“The rescue of El Salvador from those nefarious clutches is also helping peace in our region. The fight against organized crime anywhere in Central America is welcome. We must reduce the extension and influence of the gangs and the bad example,” said Chaves, when presenting Bukele with the decoration of the Juan Mora Fernández Order, the highest recognition of Costa Rican diplomacy.

A “league” of similar thoughts

Both presidents announced that, as a result of the visit, they plan to promote a “league” of countries with similar thinking to their own, to promote the security, prosperity and development of their nations.

Chaves also reinforced the discourse that he has constantly used in recent months: the urgency of obtaining a resounding result at the polls. With this, he noted, he wants to ensure a broader legislative bench for the candidate who, Chaves hopes, will continue with his government line after the 2026 elections.

Consecutive reelection is not allowed in the Central American country.

Both Bukele and his Costa Rican counterpart enjoy high popularity levelsalthough Chaves does not have a majority in the Legislative Assembly to promote his projects.

But the enthusiasm of the Costa Rican president for his counterpart from El Salvador was not shared by opposition representatives in the Legislative Assembly or by the judges of the Supreme Court of Justice. They were reluctant to receive Bukele due to the questions that exist against him in terms of human rights as a consequence of his security policy.

Chaves resolved with Bukele that he should not expose himself to the grievance and that he would not contemplate visits to the other branches of the State on this occasion. In his place, the Salvadoran president will tour La Reforma, one of the country’s main prisons, on Tuesday.

To the accusations regarding human rights, Bukele once again responded that the human right to life came first and that this is what must be guaranteed in the face of the violence that his country was experiencing, and then ensure that everyone else is protected.

“All other rights are useless if there is no right to life, they cannot be applied, there is no right to mobility if I am dead; So the State must guarantee the right to life of its citizens and for that it must go after criminals, there is no other way,” said Bukele.

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