Spanish
San Salvador.- El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele thanked his US counterpart, Donald Trump, on Tuesday night for nominating the Salvadoran gang Barrio 18, which operates in El Salvador and other Central American countries, as a terrorist group.
"Thank you for your words, Mr. President @realDonaldTrump (Donald Trump), during your speech today at the United Nations General Assembly. Also, thank you for designating the Barrio 18 gang as a terrorist group, whose crimes have caused so much damage to our societies," Bukele posted on X in a message in English.
The United States government designated this transnational criminal gang as a terrorist organization on Tuesday, amid its campaign to dismantle drug trafficking networks and dismantle gangs that threaten the security of the North American nation.
The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, indicated in a statement that Barrio 18, which in El Salvador has the Sureños and Revolucionarios factions, is a fierce rival of Mara Salvatrucha (MS13), "is one of the largest gangs in our hemisphere and has perpetrated attacks against security personnel, public officials and civilians in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras".
Bukele added in his publication that: "In El Salvador, we had already taken this step by formally designating them as terrorists; although some organizations have criticized us, most of their members are currently incarcerated in the CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Center, designed specifically to deal with this type of threat."
He added that Trump's message "underlines the importance of working together with determination in the fight against terrorism and we are pleased to see that our governments are fully aligned in this cause".
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"We are convinced that cooperation between our nations is key to eradicating these criminal structures and ensuring a future of peace and security for our people," Bukele added. In his message to the United Nations General Assembly, Trump thanked El Salvador for "receiving and imprisoning so many criminals who entered our country." The Donald Trump administration in the United States has become the main international shield for President Nayib Bukele, supporting a recent constitutional reform that enables indefinite presidential re-election and dismissing accusations of human rights violations in El Salvador, in the face of criticism from international and local organizations. The rapprochement between both administrations, driven mainly by a deportation and imprisonment agreement in El Salvador of more than 200 Venezuelans expelled from the US, for allegedly belonging to the criminal gang Tren de Aragua, has reached the level that analysts and organizations consider that they have jointly violated human rights.
