El Salvador’s Bukele threatens gang-crackdown-style tactics against price gougers
El Salvador's President, famous for his heavy-handed crackdown on street gangs, threatened to use similar tactics against price gougers.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, famous for his heavy-handed crackdown on street gangs, threatened to use similar tactics against price gougers.
Since 2022, Bukele has rounded up tens of thousands of suspected street gang members — often on little evidence — and filmed them being frog-marched in their underwear though vast new prisons.
In a speech late Friday, he threatened to use the same tactics on wholesalers and distributors who he blamed for a recent steep rise in the prices for food items and other basic goods.
“I am going to issue a call, like we did to the gangs at the start of 2019,” Bukele said, referring to the year he was first elected. “We told them either stop killing people, or don’t complain about what happens afterward.”
“Well, I’m going to issue a message to the importers, distributors and food wholesalers: stop abusing the people of El Salvador, or don’t complain about what happens afterward.”
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