Salvadoran President Bukele condemns Trump indictment, arrest of opposition candidate

The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, opined this Tuesday that "the ability of the United States to use democracy as a foreign policy has gone," this after it became known that former President Donald Trump appeared before the New York court judge of Manhattan Juan Manuel Merchan.

"Think what you want about former President Trump and the reasons why he is being accused. But imagine if this happened in any other country, where a government arrested the main opposition candidate," Bukele wrote on Twitter.

And he added: "America's ability to use 'democracy' as foreign policy is gone."

Trump pleaded not guilty this Tuesday to the 34 charges in connection with irregular payments to the porn actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign, so that she would not make public a sexual relationship between the two.

The former president, who has become the first US president to face criminal charges, appeared before Judge Juan Manuel Merchan of the New York court in Manhattan shortly after turning himself in to the Prosecutor's Office, where he was read his rights and was booked.

The Salvadoran president's message was accompanied by a New York Magazine publication in which a photograph of the former US president can be seen entering the court.

Bukele argued on March 30 that the United States could not condemn "political persecution" in other countries after a jury's decision to indict former President Trump.

"Unfortunately, it will be very difficult for US foreign policy to use arguments like 'democracy' and 'free and fair elections', or to try to condemn 'political persecution' in other countries, from now on," the post published. president on Twitter.

After the arrival of Democrat Joe Biden to the White House, the Salvadoran president has maintained a tense relationship with the United States, whose government he has accused of financing his opponents, while in 2019 he said that Trump was "nice and cool".

He also condemned the change in criteria by the Constitutional Chamber that would have enabled his immediate re-election, which he has stated he will seek in 2024.