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El Salvador's Bukele tells US conservatives to 'put up a fight'



The president of El Salvador told American conservatives to "put up a fight" against the "global elites" in order to get their country back.


"The people of El Salvador have woken up, and so can you," Nayib Bukele said in a speech at the biggest annual gathering of conservatives in the US.


Mr Bukele - who calls himself the world's coolest dictator - was re-elected for a second term this month.

His popularity soared after he cracked down on crime and gangs.

Following his election in 2019, he turned El Salvador from the murder capital of the world into one of the region's safest countries.


But despite his popularity, Mr Bukele remains a controversial figure. Human rights groups say that thousands have been arbitrarily jailed during his anti-gang drive.

He was speaking at Thursday's headline event for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), hosted by the American Conservative Union, a few miles from Washington DC.


The gathering is one of the leading events on the conservative political calendar, and has been transformed in recent years into a heavily pro-Donald Trump affair, a reflection of his takeover of the Republican Party.

The auditorium greeted Mr Bukele with a standing ovation, cheers and shouts of "I love you" as he took to the stage.

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