By Pedro Pablo Morejón
HAVANA TIMES – Nayib Bukele is the President of El Salvador, a young charismatic leader, who knows how to manipulate his political marketing and has managed a great feat that nobody can deny: he’s managed to bring down the crime rate significantly in a country that was extremely violent. However, this has happened under a state of emergency that has allowed him to do whatever he likes, violating basic human rights, even of the innocent.
Watching some YouTube videos, I found some of his statements that date back several years, before he was President, which were broadcast on a pro-government Cuban TV channel called “Cuba no es Miami”, only a month ago.
I played the video and he began talking about Fidel Castro, saying that a person like him is born once every century, and leave a profound imprint on History.
He then went on to praise the Cuban system, saying that it has an excellent healthcare system, that he has been to Cuba on holiday lots of times and has been able to verify that medical services here are top notch because even US citizens travel to Cuba to be seen, that he would like to have a public healthcare system like Cuba’s, that everything is the opposite in his country where people have to line up to be seen at a hospital that is falling to pieces and has no medicines.
He goes on to point out that Cuba is the only country where you don’t see children sleeping on the street, that there aren’t illiterates and that we have one of the best education systems in the world, comparing it once again with other countries where schools are falling to pieces.
He also said that you can walk anywhere in Cuba at 2 AM without being in danger, that it’s a very safe country in his opinion.
At the end, he explains a little when saying that there are some things that shouldn’t be taken from our country, but that it is an example and reference for many other things.
Bukele seemed to forget that this dictatorship he praised so highly, is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Salvadorans during the Civil War in his country, when Cuba shamelessly interfered in El Salvador’s domestic affairs by offering advice, training and logistical support to the Marxist guerrilla force of the FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front), which is now a political party, which Bukele was a member of by the way.
Bukele was either lying or doesn’t have the faintest idea about Cuba’s healthcare system, where many of its facilities have been in a bad state for a really long time, medical assistance is awful because there aren’t any materials or supplies, people wait in long lines to be seen and medicines are in shortage.
This is all going on while a millionaire like him can go on holiday in Cuba and be seen at health facilities for foreigners, where they have everything they need, as you’d expect, and medical attention is given that rivals the First World.
Bukele also didn’t know or pretended to be unaware of the sad reality that the vast majority of Cuban children are living in precarious conditions and are very rarely able to enjoy a piece of candy.
He was also unaware, and I don’t know if he still is, that some children beg, and that child prostitution exists on the island.
There is enough evidence of the above that any unbiased researcher would be able to confirm this.
Bukele also seems to ignore the fact that the Cuban education system is marked by ideology and indoctrination, and that if you manage to graduate from university, you will only ever be a professional with an income that still puts you under the poverty line.
What did Nayib Bukele know or know now about the situation of citizens’ safety in Cuba? Has he ever lived here, in this country where the number of robberies and murders has gone up every year according to independent media? Crime rates which, by the way, the regime never provides statistics for.
It would be helpful to know what Mr. Bukele currently thinks about Cuban reality, and whether he’d still stand by those sad statements.
But I at least wouldn’t expect honesty from someone who has taken advantage of the Salvadoran people’s support today to gradually destroy democratic institutions in his country.
You can’t trust an aspiring dictator.
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