El Salvador tried to influence U.S. election outcomes, says State Department 

The State Department acknowledged that El Salvador tries to influence “certain election outcomes” in the United States, after a California congressman accused the Central American country of interfering in her race, reported The Hill. 

“Throughout our last electoral process, we noted with alarm increasingly direct attempts by some Salvadorans to directly influence certain electoral outcomes in the United States,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement. 

“As we have repeatedly made clear, this is unacceptable, and we have repeatedly communicated this directly to the Government of El Salvador through official diplomatic channels,” the spokesperson added.

Representative Norma Torres, who recently was reelected in California, accused Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele of organizing “online attacks” against her to influence the election outcomes, The Hill continued. 

“This kind of flagrant manipulation of our electoral politics demands a strong response by the federal government to counteract misinformation, harassment, and lies directed by foreign governments to influence our democratic system,” Torres said in a statement. 

Since last April, Bukele has been urging residents in Torres’ district to vote against her. 

“She does not work for you, but to keep our countries underdeveloped,” Bukele wrote in a tweet. 

A nuestra diáspora, hermanos hondureños, guatemaltecos y a toda la comunidad latina: Digamos no 👎 a Norma Torres, por que le ha hecho mucho daño a El Salvador. 🙏
Recuerden, No a Norma Torres. https://t.co/71ExdFCTaS

— Christian Guevara 🇸🇻 (@ChrisGuevaraG) October 8, 2022

“Let’s say no to Norma Torres because she has caused so much harm to El Salvador,” says another one of the president’s tweets. 

Since then the Congresswoman and President Bukele have exchanged several fiery tweets at each other. 

According to Torres, members of Bukele’s government and political party, Nuevas Ideas, began openly supporting Torres’ opponents at rallies and social media in the months leading up to the midterm elections. 

“I work in Congress to reduce the number of asylum seekers at our Southern border by helping to create strong democracies, economic opportunities, and safety in Latin America,” Torres said in the press release this month. “Rather than supporting these efforts, President Bukele would rather devote his own country’s resources in a failed attempt to defeat my candidacy.”

Torres has been in office since 2015 and won the recent midterm elections with 57.4% of the votes in her favor. Her district is almost 70% Hispanic, mostly consisting of Mexican Americans. Additionally, Torres chairs the Congressional Central America Caucus.