RPT - Salvadoran President Bukele In UNGA Speech Says Powerful States 'Cannot Rule In Our House'

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st September, 2022) Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele told the UN General Assembly that powerful and prosperous states cannot rule his country.

"Even though we're free and sovereign, independent, on paper, we will never really be until the powerful understand that we want to be their friends, we admire them, we respect them, that our doors are wide open for trade, for them to visit us, to build better relations. But what they cannot do, is come to rule in our house," Bukele told the Assembly.

Bukele added that El Salvador is a country where the people have always seen its destiny controlled by foreign powers, saying that a much smaller country was never respected by others.

"This small piece of land is not even respected by countries much more prosperous and powerful than ours," Bukele said, adding those states believe they have the right to dictate in his country.

Mostly criticizing "the powerful", Bukele also said he considers the current format of the UNGA to be outdated.

Bukele has been characterized by some as a dictator because of his draconian measures against gang violence and other "authoritarian" moves, including a state of exception in which over 50 thousand "criminals" have been imprisoned.