Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words

New President of El Salvador Promises to Fight Trump's Border Wall

"I will rule for the 7 million Salvadorans in the country and the 3 million abroad," Bukele said.

Buenos Aires (dpa) - Nayib Bukele, a 37-year-old businessman, was sworn in on Saturday as the new president of El Salvador.

The conservative politician is the youngest head of state in the history of the Central American country.

Bukele promised in his swearing-in address that he would fight against "every barrier, against every wall" in order to achieve a transformation in the country plagued by violence and corruption.

"I will rule for the 7 million Salvadorans in the country and the 3 million abroad," Bukele said.

Most migrants from El Salvador live in the United States or try to reach the country via Mexico.

The term of office of the new president extends to 2024. For the time being, Bukele will not have his own majority in parliament as his party has only 11 of the total of 84 seats. The next scheduled general elections are in 2021.

Left-wing Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), which supplied all presidents since the end of the civil war in El Salvador (1980-92), blasted Bukele's speech as "superficial."

"In his speech the new president of the republic did not express commitments or proposals to solve the biggest problems facing the Salvadoran people, such as the privatization of water, pension reform and citizen security," the FMLN said in a statement.

"It was a superficial speech, aimed at his followers and ignoring the political and social diversity of our country."

The former mayor of the capital San Salvador replaces FMLN's President Salvador Sanchez Seren.

His election marked the end of the predominance of the right-wing party Arena and the FMLN.

El Salvador is one of the poorest countries in Latin America. About one third of the population lives in poverty, around 10 per cent in extreme poverty. The state has one of the highest murder rates in the world.

 

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