Having made the fight against drug trafficking in his country El Salvador a major issue, President Nayib Bukele reacted to the comments of former President François Hollande on the legalization of cannabis. Nicknamed the “cool dictator” and ultra-present on social networks, he says today that he has made El Salvador “the safest country in the world”, particularly in the face of drug trafficking and gang warfare.
Guest of BFMTV This Monday, November 4, the former president, now deputy François Hollande, reacted to Karl Olive's comments on drug trafficking. Karl Olive said he wanted to send the army into sensitive neighborhoods to provoke “a real shock in the country”.
“It is not the army that must be sent to the neighborhoods. We send police and CRS. It is up to us to ensure that they are more numerous and better equipped and better supervised” explained the former president during the debate. He continues “the proposal to legalize cannabis would in no way lead to a reduction in trafficking.”
“Taking Criminals Off the Streets”
A statement that provoked Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, a small country in Latin America. On his Twitter account he responded, in French, to François Hollande: “It only moves the red line. People who commit crimes will start to exploit what is beyond the red line, and society will then be left with two problems: the massive use of what has just been legalized and the increase in the use of what remains close to the red line.”
No, legalizing a crime does not reduce crime; it only moves the red line. People who commit crimes will begin to exploit what lies beyond the red line, and society will then be left with two problems: the massive use of this… https://t.co/yIJOzPVrcV
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1853524142076940486?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
El Salvador, once renowned as a hotbed of crime and drug trafficking, began a massive crackdown on gangs under Bukele's presidency. When a user responds to him “this king’s place is not in El Salvador but here” with a photo of the Élysée, Bukele then responds with a lot of humor “you will first have to annex El Salvador, as you did with Corsica.”
75,000 people, or 8% of the male population between 15 and 30 years old, were imprisoned without access to a lawyer or to the elements of their case. Which also provokes the indignation of NGOs or people complaining of injustice. He told the magazine Time to have “put 85% of gang members behind bars”.
