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Biden Admin Denies Having Offered Perks to Congressmen in El Salvador

Administración Biden niega haber ofrecido prebendas para "comprar" diputados en El Salvador

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The embassy of Joe Biden’s government denied this Sunday “categorically” the accusations that its diplomatic representation in El Salvador allegedly supported a “conspiracy” against the ruling party Nuevas Ideas (NI).

“The U.S. embassy categorically denies the accusations made in a recording recently published on the Twitter account of Nuevas Ideas,” a spokesman said.

He added that “the people speaking in the audio are not representatives of the U.S. Embassy” and that it “does not support one political party over another.”

He further indicated that it “meets with a wide variety of El Salvador government officials and Salvadoran citizens, as is normal in all diplomatic relations.”

“Our goal in El Salvador remains the same as it has for years: to create opportunities and help improve security so that Salvadorans are not forced to leave their country,” he concluded.

The NI party, led by a cousin of President Nayib Bukele, announced last Saturday on its Twitter account the separation of two deputies from its legislative group in Congress for allegedly participating in a meeting to “conspire.”

“We received an audio where allegedly two deputies of Nuevas Ideas are heard conspiring with Roy García, who presents himself as a liaison of the US embassy, seeking to split in two the bench of Nuevas Ideas in the Assembly, in exchange for perks,” the party posted on its verified Twitter account.

It added that in the recording, the leader of Salvadorans abroad offers to go to the diplomatic headquarters “to negotiate the perks that would be granted by the U.S. Government, in exchange for getting between 15 and 25 deputies to leave the faction.”

The deputies who allegedly participated in the meeting are José García and Gerardo Balmore Aguilar, for which reason “the investigation will continue prior to initiating the corresponding sanctioning process.”

President Bukele, without directly pointing the finger at anyone, reacted to the publication of NI, which was born out of a movement he founded.

“This is the ‘democracy’ they want us to return to. The ‘democracy’ of black briefcases, perks and the purchase of deputies. It is not democracy, it is the opposite. In addition to being interference and corruption (which they also claim to want to fight),” he said.

The president wrote a similar message recently in which he responded to the main U.S. advisor on Latin America, Juan Gonzalez, and pointed out that “you are not interested in democracy, but in your own national interests.”

“Your boss (Joe Biden) said it, on live TV, after you spent a trillion dollars and 20 years of destruction and death in Afghanistan. Please keep your ‘democracy’ away from our country,” Bukele posted.

The Salvadoran government has maintained a tense relationship with the US embassy since Joe Biden came to power.

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