00:00:00.000All right. Well, behind me is El Salvador's National Plaza. We're standing here on the grounds of the National Library, a building that was fully paid for by the Chinese government, a gift of the Chinese government to the people of El Salvador.
00:00:27.160And the building, I have to say, stands out quite a lot compared to the architecture that surrounds us here. And it is beautiful architecture, this beautiful cathedral here. This is the National Palace where the El Salvador government used to be seated.
00:00:42.020And we're here for the Patriots Network America launch that took place in El Salvador. We were able to listen to many different Central American politicians, El Salvador politicians, people who are experts in this region, discussing the transformation that has taken place here.
00:00:59.420And the transformation has been incredible to see. Through an iron fist approach to combating crime and gangs, El Salvador has drastically reduced its violent crime rate, allegedly making it one of the safest countries in the Western Hemisphere.
00:01:14.640Safer than Canada, if you can believe it. But it's amazing what happens when you actually lock criminals up and put them in prison. This country has entered a policy of mass incarceration.
00:01:27.02079,000 arrests from alleged gang members have taken place in this country, garnering worldwide attention, and not the best attention as well. Some critics of El Salvador view this country as a dictatorship.
00:01:41.300Some say that the suspended civil liberties of El Salvadorians has crossed a line. In fact, for several years, the people in El Salvador have been living under a state of exception, a state of emergency with suspended constitutional rights.
00:01:54.100So the question does become, at what cost does solving this crime situation really come to? Is it worth it? And I think for many people, it likely is. Because in El Salvador, the gangs were not just what gangs you might think of as they are in Canada.
00:02:10.340These gangs were MS-13, some of the worst gangs in the world. El Salvador was one of the most dangerous countries in the world, and now it is allegedly one of the safest.
00:02:18.520But that's not the only thing that makes El Salvador, this small Central American country, so interesting.
00:02:23.700Another factor that makes this country interesting is its decision to embrace Bitcoin as legal tender. In fact, not just as legal tender, but as the legal currency along to the U.S. dollar.
00:02:33.960The first country to do so. The young, charismatic leader, Nayib Bukele, has brought about these advanced changes, these new, fresh ideas of the country.
00:02:42.120Not always in a way that protects civil liberties, but certainly in a way that has put this small country on the map.
00:02:49.380We've been able to speak with leaders, politicians, political activists here in El Salvador to ask them what they make of what's going on here and what's going on in their country.
00:03:00.680All right, well, we are here with Philip de Winter, former member of European Parliament and the vice president of the Flemish Assembly of Belgium.
00:06:16.880You know, it's a big economy, the second largest economy in the world.
00:06:21.160That's why all the countries, not only the Central America, South American countries need to start a relationship with China.
00:06:31.020I'm a support of this kind of trade with China.
00:06:36.860You know, not only this building, you know, you have the water company and other things are so important for the country.
00:06:44.840But, you know, like every relationship with the country, you know, you need to care and you need to be smart to have advantage, good advantage, to try to start growth with the trade.
00:06:59.940So we are here with Herbert Esmehan, a political analyst here in El Salvador, someone who knows quite a lot about what's going on.
00:07:06.380Let me first ask you, what can the world learn from El Salvador's approach to gangs and crime?
00:07:12.400Because the results speak for themselves.
00:07:14.020I believe El Salvador has become a beacon of hope for the rest of the world.
00:07:18.940It has shown a message to all of the nations that no matter how far gone your country is, there is always a way back as long as you have the willpower and the faith in God to make it happen.
00:07:31.340President Bukele many times has mentioned during his inauguration speech and other speeches that God is a key element in being able to move your country forward.
00:07:40.860How do people in El Salvador respond to the attacks from leftist media, from international organizations who say that this country is a dictatorship, that the people through this approach no longer have their rights?
00:07:55.420What is the response from the government and what is the response from supporters?
00:07:59.380Well, the government's quite neutral, you know, the government's just focused on the well-being of the Salvadoran people, no matter what anyone says.
00:08:07.760And when it comes to the people, well, we laugh at them because El Salvador is better than it has ever been.
00:08:13.400El Salvador used to be a nation that was corrupted and full of crime.
00:08:18.220People cannot have the normal everyday lives that most of us get to enjoy.
00:08:23.680People, parents couldn't send their kids to school.
00:08:28.000They couldn't live a normal life because they would be extorted, possibly murdered, etc.
00:08:32.920So now that President Bukele, through sheer passion and love for his nation, has been able to restore this country, restore stability, many globalist international organizations, they only seek one thing, to destabilize nations because they become easy prey if they're destabilized.
00:08:53.800What does the long-term public safety approach look like?
00:08:59.580We've heard a lot about the short-term approach, the mass arrests, the iron fist approach to dealing with crime.
00:09:07.000But long-term, how do you prevent crime from coming back in the future?
00:09:11.600You give opportunities to your citizens, and that is something that President Nayib Bukele's government is doing effectively.
00:09:16.940El Salvador used to be a country with no opportunity, which is why many of our citizens used to immigrate to other nations.
00:09:27.220Salvadorans are coming back to their roots to establish businesses and start new lives in El Salvador because we have given them hope and opportunity, which is something essential.
00:09:39.680If you have a stable nation, why would your citizens want to leave in the first place?
00:09:43.380With the Donald Trump administration coming back with a mandate to deport people who have committed crimes and have entered the U.S. illegally, what is the El Salvador government's position?
00:09:56.300Are they going to accept people who have been deported back?
00:09:59.260I guess they might have to, but what does that look like?
00:10:01.900Has the government started to plan what that looks like with people being forced to come back to El Salvador?
00:10:07.420Well, as a simple political analyst, I wouldn't be able to tell you what the government is thinking.
00:10:11.320However, I can tell you that I'm sure that there's going to be great cooperation between the two governments because El Salvador and the United States have been allies for decades now.
00:10:23.280And they always have been and will be our greatest ally in El Salvador.
00:10:26.720I am sure we'll be willing to work with whatever we need to do to make things right for both countries.
00:10:31.920The last question you have for you, Herbert, is about Chinese investment in this country.
00:13:16.980And I think with the Trump administration, we can work a lot with that.
00:13:19.660And maybe in Canada, that also has this type of problem with a new conservative government or people that are aligned with our values, I think we can do some amazing things.
00:13:29.380I think a lot of people in Canada, I can't speak for Americans, but I think a lot of people in Canada look at Central American countries that are experiencing this drug trafficking pathway.
00:13:38.220And they say to themselves, well, what are they doing to stop these people from coming into our country?
00:13:43.880Don't they have to take some responsibility?
00:14:19.100And so we don't want to leave our countries.
00:14:20.700People don't really want to leave our country.
00:14:22.240But yeah, we have to do our own work in governments or in opposition parties and private enterprise to people have more money, have more income, have better jobs, lower the cost of living.
00:14:32.840But the problem, specifically with the drug type of migration, because of illegal activities and that people get displaced, I think that there is a shared common responsibility.
00:14:45.280Because it's not only our problem that our people are leaving because of drugs, it's because the United States or other countries want so much drug, and we're just in the way, and people are being murdered, kidnapped, or displaced by this problem that we did not create and we did not incentivize.
00:15:03.240So yeah, I think we have a responsibility.
00:15:05.840But the other countries cannot just say, oh, stop migration.
00:15:08.420Yeah, if it's because of jobs, if it's because of income, of course.
00:15:12.180But if it's because of drugs, I think we have something to do a lot in common.
00:15:15.320As a neighboring country to El Salvador, the question I have for you is, what do Honduran people think of El Salvador and the transformation we are seeing in this country due to these policies of being tough on crime, tough on gangs?
00:15:27.660Do people look at El Salvador as a model for how they want your country to be run?