Thank you! Thank you, El Salvador!
Today... today, El Salvador has broken all the records. Today, El Salvador has broken all the records of all the democracies in the history of the world. In the history of the world, since the dawn of democracy, no political project had ever won by the number of votes that we won with today. It's literally the greatest landslide in history. It is the greatest difference between first and second place in all of history.
And we haven't just won the Presidency for the second time, receiving over 85% of the votes; we have also won the Legislative Assembly, taking 58 out of 60 seats. At the very least. [Yes we did!] Of course we did it! 58 out of 60 at the very least. Likely more. This would be the first time that there is a single ruling party in a fully democratic system. All of the opposition, all together, has been pulverized.
El Salvador has made history again today. In 2019 we overcame the 2-party system that had kept us subjugated and we turned the page. We ended the post-war period. But it wasn't easy to govern. Remember how we had to fight with the Legislative Assembly then; they wouldn't let us do anything good for the people. In 2021, you gave us not just a simple majority, which they said would be impossible; you voted in a two-thirds majority in the Legislative Assembly.
And then, and then we were able, the Salvadoran people and their elected representatives were able to remove the previous Constitutional Court, remove the previous Attorney General, and pass the measures that we needed for the Territorial Control Plan. And then in March 2022, they passed the State of Exception.
Some say... some of those people who don't live in our country, who have never visited El Salvador, who have never spent time here, not even to make a connection at the airport, they say that Salvadorans are oppressed. They say that Salvadorans don't like the State of Exception. That Salvadorans live in fear of their government. And I want to tell the journalists who are here with us tonight, here in total freedom and security, here in the safest country in the entire Western Hemisphere: Don't take my word for it. I'm just a politician. I'm just an elected official. Believe the Salvadoran people. Believe what they are telling you.
They are telling you here in this public plaza. They told you in all of the national and international opinion polls, even the opposition polls. And if you didn't believe that, they told you again today in these elections. The Salvadoran people have spoken. And they haven't just spoken loudly and clearly, they have made the clearest statement in the history of democracies around the world. If that doesn't convince you, journalists, if that doesn't convince you, representatives from the NGOs, representatives from the international organizations, the UN, the OAS, if that doesn't convince you, nothing will.
[Bukele!] Thank you. The Salvadoran people have spoken. And what did they say today? The Salvadoran people have said that they want to stay the course. I was talking, I was talking to a Spanish journalist. And my greetings to all of the good Spaniards out there. I was talking to a Spanish journalist, from a news outlet... Lo País. This Spanish journalist asked: Why do you want to dismantle democracy? I answered: What democracy are you referring to? Democracy means the power of the people.
Demos, Demos and Kratos. That's where the word democracy comes from. Demos and Kratos. Demos means people. And Kratos means power. It's the power of the people. And if this is what the Salvadoran people want, why should a Spanish journalist come and tell us what Salvadorans can and can't do? What democracy is he talking about? He's talking about the democracy that his bosses in Spain want. But that's not democracy.
That's colonialism, imperialism, elitism, plutocracy. Call it whatever you want, but that's not democracy. Because democracy is when Salvadorans decide, as Salvadorans, how we want to govern ourselves. As Salvadorans, we choose our own path. Salvadorans want to be friends with everyone. Salvadorans love Spain, Europe, the United States, and all other countries. We love you, we respect you, we don't ask for anything in return. We aren't asking for money, we aren't asking for donations, we aren't asking for international aid, we aren't asking for anything. The only thing we demand is respect.
That's it. Respect. We will respect you, we respect your hereditary monarchy, but you must also show us respect. And I referred to my Spanish friend just to cite one example. But this goes for all the countries in the world. El Salvador wants to trade with everyone. El Salvador wants everyone to come and visit. El Salvador is throwing its doors open wide, for citizens from all the countries in the world. We want you to come, we want you to visit, to get to know us. We want to be your friends, your allies, your partners. But what we will not accept, is to be your servants.
And it's not just the fact that this is our right; it is also that we already tried your recipes for 50 years, and they never worked. The civil war in El Salvador, which officially left over 85,000 Salvadorans dead and displaced over 1 million people, was sponsored by two separate powers. There was a conflict between the West and the Soviet Union. And they wanted to fight, but not on their own soil. They didn't want to provide the cannon fodder. So they decided to fight in other places around the world, and one of those places that they chose to fight was here in El Salvador.
They tricked us. They told us to kill each other, and we did as they said. In the 1970s, we began to kill each other. Then in 1981 they told the guerrilla groups that they should join forces into a single group to battle the government, which happened to be sponsored by the other side. And the civil war officially began in 1981. We killed each other for another 12 years, until they no longer wanted the war, because they had settled their continental and international differences. So they told us: "Stop the war, and sign the peace accords."
And they sent us the peace accords that were applauded by all the journalists you see here. They were applauded by the entire international community, they were applauded by all of the organizations and NGOs. They were held up as an example for all countries around the world. The example of the peace that was signed in El Salvador. But Salvadorans know it was a farce. A total farce.
And it was a farce for 3 reasons: First, because it brought nothing for the Salvadorans themselves, it only served to let the two groups divide up the pie and distribute the spoils of war. Second, because it assumed that everything that wasn't achieved by war, everything that hadn't been achieved by fighting, would suddenly be achieved through a peace agreement. That wasn't the case. There was never social justice, there was never investment in youth, there was never a reduction in poverty; nothing was ever done. But above all, the peace accords were a farce because there was never peace.
And only a Salvadoran can tell you that we never had peace here. We lived in a constant state of war, and spilled more blood than during the war itself. In the civil war that you funded, we spilled less blood than during what would come next. And then the gangs were also an imported recipe.
Because when the people displaced by the war made it to the United States and went to live in the ghettos, that's where the gangs were formed. Then President Clinton decided he would deport all the gang members. They sent us the gangs in 1997, and as a cherry on top, they gave us another recipe to follow: pass the Juvenile Offender Law. And with that, we couldn't arrest the gang members coming in, most of whom were minors at that time.
"Don't worry, this is the recipe to get you out of underdevelopment." "Don't worry, this is the recipe to bring you peace." And do you know what we did? We took their advice. And what happened? The gangs grew, and eventually took control of 85% of our national territory. They murdered over 100,000 Salvadorans who are not here with us today, because we followed the recipes from those international organizations.
When we won the elections, not in 2019, but in 2021, and we were able to change some of the Salvadoran political system: the judicial system, the attorney general, the Constitutional Court, what did they say? "You're dismantling democracy." And we told them: Democracy is the power of the people. The Salvadoran people voted for this, and this is what we will do.
I will pose the question... not to Salvadorans - we are clear on this point, but I will ask these organizations, and ask these journalists: Would we have been able to win the war against the gangs with the attorney general from the Arena party? [No!] Would we have been able to win the war against the gangs with the previous Constitutional Court? [No!] Would we have been able to win the war against the gangs without passing the Territorial Control Plan? [No!] Would we have been able to win the war against the gangs without the State of Exception, which has been renewed 24 times? [No!]
To renew the State of Exception, you don't just need a simple majority, or even a two-thirds majority. You need a supermajority, and not just a supermajority, you need to renew it every 30 days. And to reach that consensus... Can you imagine reaching that consensus in the previous legislature? With all of the bribes they took? It would have taken us the entire national treasury to pay those thieving legislators to vote for what the people needed. And even still they may not have voted for it.
But supposedly that was democracy. They said that was the democracy that we were dismantling. And finally, we began to overcome our greatest evil. We are on the verge of winning the war against the gangs. We have gone from being literally, and this is no exaggeration, it's not hyperbole, we have gone from being literally the most dangerous country in the world to being the safest country in the entire Western Hemisphere.
The safest country in the American continent. And what did they tell us? "You're violating human rights." Whose human rights? The rights of the honest people? No. Perhaps we have prioritized the rights of the honest people over the criminals' rights. That is all we have done. And that's what you say is a human rights violation.
I ask these organizations, I ask the governments of these foreign nations, I ask these journalists: why do you want them to kill us? Why do you want to see Salvadoran blood spilled? Why aren't you happy to see that blood doesn't run in our country as it did before? Why? Why should we die? Why should our children die? So that you can be happy that we are respecting your false democracy, which you don't even respect in your own country?
I once told a group of ambassadors, I think some of you may have seen it: "We admire you so much, we admire your developed countries, your powerful countries. We admire you so much, that we will do what you do, not what you want to order us to do."
Have you ever stopped to wonder why so many eyes around the world are watching the smallest country in the Americas? A country without great natural resources. We don't have great tracts of land, we aren't a rich country, we don't have oil, we don't have diamonds, or great gold mines. So why do they care about El Salvador? Why is there so much talk about El Salvador? Why are there so many reports about El Salvador? Why is everyone coming to cover the elections in El Salvador?
Because, plain and simple, they are afraid of the power of our example. Salvadorans are the owners of a very small country. Of a relatively poor country. Of a country that is still underdeveloped. But Salvadorans have set an example for the world over, that anything can be resolved, any problem can be fixed, if there's the will to do it.
Many people are watching us now, watching us from across Latin America. Our Latin American brothers and sisters are watching from Ecuador, from Argentina, from Brazil, from Canada, Canada isn't Latin America, but I see that flag waving and people watching from Canada. Our brothers and sisters from Honduras, our brothers and sisters from Guatemala, from Costa Rica. They are watching us in Chile, in Mexico, and in the United States.
And they say: "What are the Salvadorans doing, how are they solving their own problems, while our own governments can't seem to solve our problems?" [There's no will!] [Bukele, Bukele.] And the answer is: Salvadorans have united.
There is no polarization here. There will always be a small group against us. That's normal. In any free country, there will always be a small opposition, and that is their right. But there is no polarization here. 85% of Salvadorans have voted to stay this course, in freedom and democracy.
And now that they have seen us work this miracle, we must give all glory to God. Because what are we if not His instruments? We are all the tools of God. God chose to heal our country, and He did it by uniting the people who decided to leave the past behind and take the reins of their own destiny.
I can already see the headlines. "Bukele mentions God, and the country must be secular" They even want to force us to be atheists now. We respect all religions, we respect atheists and agnostics. We are their friends, but let us believe in God. And let us give Him the glory if that's what we want to do. What's the harm in that? How does that hurt you?
Oh, maybe the problem is that it sets an example. Because maybe the people in your countries, who you have tried to indoctrinate into atheism, will once again believe in God.
You have seen, thanks to God and thanks to this noble and united people, how El Salvador has gone from being the most unsafe to being the safest country. Now, just wait and see what we will do in these next five years. Because we will continue to do the impossible. And El Salvador will continue to set an example for the world.
May God bless you all, thank you very much.