The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - The Anchormen Show Episode 75 - The Land of The Savior w⧸ Herbert Esmahan

00:00:00.000 now it's time for the anchorman podcast with matt gates and dan ball

00:00:11.380 welcome back to the anchorman show we are here on location in san salvador el salvador and i've got

00:00:22.180 a great friend with me that's gonna walk through a lot of the flashpoints in latin america right

00:00:27.060 now so you will end this episode knowing so much more about america's near abroad and here's why

00:00:32.920 that's important a core feature of president trump's foreign policy is to be less concerned

00:00:38.680 about lands oceans away and more focused on america's true interests and that means america's

00:00:45.780 actual neighbors what's happening in the gulf of america is more important to america than what's

00:00:51.120 happening in the black sea what's happening in mexico and central america is certainly more

00:00:56.540 important than how we assess an election in russia or ukraine and so we're going to look at some

00:01:02.560 areas where that renewed focus is creating pressure points maybe even opportunities for success and

00:01:09.040 joining me for that discussion is my pal herbert s mahan he's a political strategist here in el

00:01:14.240 salvador and watches a lot of these things closely and you know i really want to get into venezuela

00:01:19.460 and and colombia everything going on there but first uh you also watch american politics closely

00:01:25.340 what would you tell my american audience about how folks in latin america are viewing the trump

00:01:32.400 administration thus far absolutely well i can speak for the salvadoran people as a salvadoran citizen

00:01:38.320 and i can tell you that the trump administration has been a massive game changer for latin america as a

00:01:46.340 whole because under under the biden administration latin america was undergoing a lot of turmoil there was a

00:01:52.840 lot of friction they had really bad diplomats that were really complicating things for governments

00:01:58.700 all around now we see leaders like president trump and president bukele of el salvador leaders who put

00:02:05.800 their people first and it's very important to embrace these kinds of uh politics at least for our

00:02:12.380 nations that have a long history of uh turmoil as you know these countries have been very violent

00:02:18.940 countries in the past thank god el salvador has surpassed that yeah and there was this thought

00:02:26.240 about politics in america that if you wanted to get the latin american vote the hispanic vote you had

00:02:32.140 to be for open borders and if you were for strong borders that would drive away this rapidly growing

00:02:37.900 voter base and instead we saw something quite different we saw that in even immigrant communities

00:02:44.100 people wanted to see a safer country a more secure country and president trump got a higher percentage

00:02:50.320 of the hispanic vote than uh than any other republican in recent memory down here is it the same do people

00:02:57.200 realize that strong borders strong countries uh will create more prosperity for people even who are

00:03:04.840 never going to the united states look uh to look at it from a larger perspective we we have to go to the

00:03:10.400 root of the problem the main reason that most latin american countries have a massive influx towards

00:03:16.720 the u.s of illegal immigrants is because of the conditions that latin american countries are facing

00:03:22.640 for example most latin american countries have high crime a lack of uh economic and educational

00:03:29.060 opportunities and that's what president bukele here in el salvador is now fixing for the salvadoran people

00:03:35.620 in the past salvadorans had absolutely no future and a very high rate of possibly being murdered in

00:03:43.480 their own country now that president bukele has restored safety security economic and educational

00:03:50.820 opportunity for his citizens there's no need for them to leave el salvador in fact many salvadoran

00:03:57.460 citizens who have been established in the states for many years are now coming back el salvador used to be 1.00

00:04:03.280 in the top 10 countries that exported immigrants to the u.s border now we're out of that top 10

00:04:09.640 because our country has been restored but that also explains matt why the globalist institutions

00:04:16.340 most international institutions quickly jump to attack any president that wants to restore order in

00:04:23.020 latin america because if you fix latin america you fix the migration issue and a lot of them take

00:04:28.340 advantage of them it's so analogous to the homeless situation in california no one actually wants to

00:04:35.640 solve the homelessness problem there because they want to continue to use it as a basis to raise money

00:04:41.960 and have big salaries and grow large organizations and be little empire builders and the ngos don't 0.64

00:04:49.040 really want a safe and secure and prosperous latin america because then you wouldn't need the ngos right 1.00

00:04:56.020 they sow chaos and they do it because they want to act like they're the firefighter but the reality

00:05:03.620 is they're often the arsonist uh in this case and we see that that play out but but there is uh i would

00:05:09.860 suggest a real flashpoint coming in venezuela and i want to get to that throughout latin america

00:05:15.600 what do people want to see happen in venezuela look i think i speak for most of latin america

00:05:22.300 the venezuelan people have suffered a lot and it's time for them to have a new beginning

00:05:28.460 however i'm not sure what the correct approach would be for that because let's say maduro is

00:05:34.480 forcefully ousted for example would that create a vacuum such as what we saw in the middle east that 0.98

00:05:40.500 will empower criminal structures to take over or would it be a smooth transition these are uh careful

00:05:46.620 points that we have to take into consideration however i do believe that communism and left-wing

00:05:53.240 marxist policies have come to an absolute end in latin america they brought nothing but crime and

00:05:58.920 suffering and even in el salvador we have experience with that because before president bukele

00:06:04.140 we had to endure 10 years of a socialist government and that's when crime got worse than it had ever been

00:06:10.740 yeah uh if there were u.s bombs dropping on caracas would people support that in latin america

00:06:20.760 sincerely speaking that is a very difficult question to answer on behalf of a lot of people

00:06:28.380 yeah but like the general vibe down here has been that whether it was united fruit or standard fruit

00:06:34.080 yet a lot of u.s interests that were destabilizing things and frankly

00:06:38.640 a lot of the u.s funded ngos did destabilize things and are still attempting to destabilize

00:06:45.520 things as president trump is ripping out the funding for them and and so i wonder if there isn't

00:06:52.240 a latent resentment to u.s involvement that that president trump shouldn't have to own he wasn't

00:06:59.120 there for it he's not a longtime u.s policymaker but resentment that literally goes back to the days of

00:07:04.960 like the banana republics and the banana wars carried through to the ngos and and now with concern over

00:07:10.720 military intervention

00:07:11.840 look what what i can tell you is that based on my personal opinion these are my thoughts um i think

00:07:18.080 that each nation should be left to resolve its own issues however um if the people can be supported in

00:07:25.720 one way or another to uh to be fortified to be strengthened even if it's morally spiritually

00:07:31.840 and to take charge once again of their nation then of course it should be done and i think they've

00:07:37.380 tried i mean they they had these elections and i have to say it was it was moving when i would see

00:07:43.440 these elections officials knowing that they would be charged with crimes just for giving an honest vote

00:07:49.480 knowing that their families could be targeted they came out of those voting precincts they got on

00:07:55.540 bullhorns and they announced that maduro was losing at the ballot box three to one four to one

00:08:01.820 sometimes six and eight to one to this little known diplomat at mundo gonzalez who only by the way

00:08:07.920 was the candidate because maria corina was not allowed to run over some complete bs fabricated thing 1.00

00:08:15.560 and so the people of venezuela did show up and vote yeah they voted against maduro maduro simply

00:08:21.480 had the military seize the ballots and announce a fake result and so i wonder what tools are available

00:08:29.880 for venezuelans uh to fight back against this when the election there just didn't matter and i i

00:08:36.180 herbert i don't have the answer and i'm not i'm not expecting you to either but i think that is the

00:08:41.460 decision tree that a lot of u.s policymakers are going down that if you just kind of allow this to

00:08:46.640 happen and you don't put any pressure then it will go to honduras you will start to see it more and

00:08:53.260 more present in colombia maybe even mexico uh and uh i wonder do you think he would ever leave

00:09:00.520 you know do you think do you think that the pressure on maduro would ever get to the point

00:09:05.620 as he's seeing the warships as he's wondering what his own fate would would have where he would say you

00:09:11.060 know what i'm going to take my stolen billions and head off to russia or china absolutely you know

00:09:17.140 we both know that uh both president trump and president bukele are master chess players they're

00:09:23.160 master negotiators and i do believe that the pressure that is being applied to venezuela

00:09:27.920 could actually result in a peaceful transition i don't think there will be a necessary

00:09:32.820 there will be a necessary need to to go the uh the next step as you could say i do believe that

00:09:39.140 maduro could be pressured to a certain degree that he'll have to whip uh whimper his way out you know

00:09:45.780 his cowardice is going to kick in and i i remember when a play was made against maduro in the first

00:09:52.560 trump administration and there was this theory among the key diplomats organizing it that you

00:09:57.380 have to keep forcing maduro to make decisions right if you just if you bombard him with decision

00:10:02.700 making that he has to do inevitably when you make a decision people second guess you if it doesn't go

00:10:07.920 right and so if you started to have more and more of those generals the top military brass around him

00:10:13.180 second guessing a high volume of decisions that may create the conditions for a maduro departure

00:10:19.460 that don't require kinetic force and hellfire missiles correct landing and i i just wonder

00:10:25.600 at this stage of the game maduro having endured kind of the juan guaidó experience

00:10:31.340 are the military leaders there really really really going to stick with him you think or is there a

00:10:38.460 breaking point where they could try to get their own payoff and and get their own hide saved you know

00:10:44.680 sincerely speaking we'll have to see how it evolves how it plays out but i want to go back if you allow

00:10:49.760 me to something that you mentioned about election integrity in venezuela that's very important what

00:10:55.420 we saw in venezuela is a clear act of rigged elections correct and that is why it's so important

00:11:02.840 for models such as the model that we have here in el salvador to be adopted by other nations within

00:11:09.280 the region el salvador has the safest voting system it's rig proof it's one of the most democratic you

00:11:17.800 guys don't do mail-in voting everywhere we do not do mail-in voting weird and you're and you're able

00:11:22.620 to get the results of the election you know what the most important part is we we have voter id you

00:11:27.680 have to bring photo id to vote you got to leave your fingerprint to vote your signature and apart

00:11:33.680 from that we only do paper ballots wow paper ballots i mean the third world has figured out 0.94

00:11:39.540 elections better than the united states of america based on that model but of course in in venezuela

00:11:44.580 and honduras we're going to see something different yeah and i must share something very important as

00:11:48.660 well i find it very hypocritical from international organizations when yet i'm sure you've heard sometimes

00:11:55.020 they want to accuse us of be of falsely being a dictatorship when in reality president bukele has

00:12:00.740 strengthened democracy in el salvador and they always fail to mention that every time we have a

00:12:06.040 general election in el salvador all these international institutions are invited to come and see our

00:12:12.680 elections they have full access to every room to every area where the ballots are being casted where the

00:12:20.560 ballots are being counted together with representatives of every political party apart from all the

00:12:26.180 security measures that i mentioned to you so this model is the right model to follow and we have to

00:12:32.720 make sure that other countries in uh the latin american region adopt such models because you know when

00:12:39.840 digital systems are uh adopted for example digital systems sometimes funded by organizations that have

00:12:46.240 soros money it it gets a little tricky like so you think yeah you think that there are actually

00:12:51.440 ngos in central america that exist to undo some of those election integrity measures like voter id like

00:12:59.800 signature match absolutely it's so crazy to me it's just so crazy i gotta tell you something a lot of

00:13:05.720 the ngos a lot of these ngos and human rights organizations and whatnot they only serve foreign

00:13:12.240 interests you got to look at it from a geopolitical perspective it's not about one nation it's about

00:13:17.280 the whole map and a lot of these organizations are complicit in for example drug trafficking and for

00:13:24.760 example arms trafficking human trafficking because let me tell you something if you restore order in

00:13:31.440 in central america specifically which is el salvador guatemala honduras nicaragua costa rica etc

00:13:37.640 you close that bridge between south america and north america what does that mean it's it's an alleyway

00:13:45.600 that the cartels would no longer have and president bukele in el salvador is leading the fight against

00:13:51.640 drug cartels el salvador is the only nation in the region that's sincerely fighting drug trafficking

00:13:57.040 fighting and winning i mean yes the drug traffickers are afraid to come to el salvador they i mean i

00:14:03.320 i saw some deals some guys were just like selling some dime bags of marijuana down by the beach and

00:14:08.500 the police treated those guys like it was al capone and i was impressed at the extent to which

00:14:14.220 there's been a turnaround here but that so much now of of the attention of the energy is around

00:14:23.140 what's going to happen in venezuela and what the cascading impacts of that will be i i was watching

00:14:28.460 something uh closely today herbert about the military strategy they are dispersing their

00:14:35.380 military units out into the country out into the jungle and what that tells me is in the event of

00:14:41.760 regime change of any kind what they're really going to try to do is create chaos and not have a

00:14:47.940 centralized system and i just wonder like is the military in venezuela really going to turn on their

00:14:53.780 own people like that that always is the question in these moments and you know we've seen the

00:14:59.400 iranian military turn on their own people we've seen it happen throughout africa and i want to believe 0.81

00:15:05.320 that there'd be enough sensibility where the venezuelan military would see what time it is

00:15:12.480 let's see the writing on the wall uh do you think that can happen look the people of venezuela

00:15:17.620 as i mentioned previously have suffered a lot and as i mentioned it it is time for them to have a

00:15:23.740 new beginning and for venezuela to become a economic power once again as it used to be back in the 80s

00:15:29.060 before ugo chavez all the rich people i knew in miami were from venezuela they had the best furniture

00:15:34.320 they had these incredible exports gold jewelry very wealthy country if not one of the if not the

00:15:39.460 wealthiest in the in the latin american region well i i now have seen this alliance that maduro hopes to

00:15:45.460 kind of lead alongside cuba creep toward colombia that's that's the next country i want to talk

00:15:50.340 about with yes gustavo petro has got this video out where he's given some crazy speech and drools

00:15:57.980 coming out of his mouth oh he's his own yeah his own foreign minister like couldn't find him for two

00:16:02.880 days in paris because he was like drug addled and running around the foreign minister has to resign

00:16:09.480 when they get back because he has no confidence in the president anymore i mean it it should we think

00:16:15.340 about petro as a rational actor anymore maybe evil but rational or is he just totally off the rails

00:16:22.320 i personally think that petro is definitely on his way out i have a lot of friends in colombia

00:16:27.480 influential friends and everyone tells me that the people are not happy with the government of gustavo

00:16:32.660 petro that you know a lot of latin american nations give the benefit of the doubt from time to time to

00:16:39.340 left-wing leaning parties right like they did in mexico like they've done in colombia and like they

00:16:44.520 sadly did in venezuela but they are quick to find out that the left is extremely ineffective and it

00:16:51.280 only brings a lot of poverty and instead of fixing issues as they promise when they're campaigning

00:16:57.140 they worsen them they enlarge them and the the the people of latin america are extremely resilient

00:17:03.660 i think we're going to see a massive political shift in the upcoming elections in colombia of that i have

00:17:08.600 no doubt uh and if colombia returns to the right what should the united states expect out of that

00:17:14.040 relationship i think you'll see more uh facility towards building a stable diplomatic relationship

00:17:19.980 because look at what gustavo petro did oh yeah they're throwing out ambassadors back and forth it's

00:17:24.980 getting ugly no and he went to the united nations just to uh stand outside with a megaphone instructing

00:17:30.580 the u.s military not to obey trump and he and that's why i i believe he got his visa revoked is

00:17:36.220 that right people who've done cocaine and that kind of is the stuff that they do that kind of crazy

00:17:41.900 behavior yeah grab a megaphone and go start yelling at another country's military um but but with him in

00:17:50.380 that condition it sounds like what you're saying is there's a realization in civil society and in the

00:17:56.600 military that this guy can't lead the country and and maybe that's one that isn't on a unidirectional

00:18:02.020 drift left but but snaps back our way yeah have you seen the uh vice minister of women that uh he

00:18:08.120 recently appointed please tell me i just hope it's a woman it's literally a man in a way wearing makeup 0.72

00:18:14.000 so that tells you everything you need to know about his government you know it it does but it is

00:18:19.300 heartbreaking to see that happen in colombia because the united states put so much into that

00:18:25.020 relationship absolutely no plan colombia had a major investment from the united states but matched

00:18:30.560 by multi multitudes from colombia and i thought that they really wanted to win their country back

00:18:37.440 from the narcos that they weren't going back to the you know to the days of uh of escobar and and the

00:18:43.220 like i i hope that's still possible uh but but what are your observations i believe that there is hope

00:18:50.280 for the entire region but there's something that's really important that we must all take into

00:18:54.840 account and that is the following stability what el salvador is doing right now what president

00:19:01.960 bukele has accomplished in what used to be the most dangerous nation in the world the murder capital of 1.00

00:19:07.200 the world is required in order to be able to restore order because if you have a stable country you can

00:19:16.920 successfully fight drug trafficking you could you can successfully fight criminal structures

00:19:21.880 and not only that give a future give hope to your own citizens as you see most of latin america it

00:19:30.040 finds itself in political chaos even neighboring countries like for example not too long ago we had uh

00:19:36.040 we saw over 20 gang members escape guatemalan prisons in guatemala from the prison like is that an escape or

00:19:44.180 where they just let out that's a question we all have yeah and and um if you restore order you're slowly closing

00:19:51.300 corridors for these criminal structures to operate but that's why human rights organizations amnesty

00:19:57.940 international all these sorrow funded uh mediums want to keep these countries from finding order from

00:20:05.300 from developing because if you have an unstable environment it's the perfect environment for criminal

00:20:11.380 structures to operate in without getting caught yeah and eventually the criminal structures get

00:20:15.940 strong enough where they get someone of their own in the white or in the in the president's office

00:20:21.060 that they turn into uh they turn into shadow governments which is what used to happen here in

00:20:26.020 el salvador with the previous governments both the left wing and the right wing parties yeah what is it

00:20:30.180 like what is a shadow government uh they controlled entire territories matt entire territories of the

00:20:36.660 nation they had alliances with the politicians of the past from both the right wing and the left wing

00:20:42.980 we're talking about the establishment right and every nation in the world has an establishment el salvador

00:20:49.380 thank god managed to defeat it i truly believe that president bukele is god sent i truly believe that he's

00:20:57.060 been blessed with this divine mission to defeat this establishment which was deeply rooted in salvadoran

00:21:03.860 government and that's why we can never uh control the gangs in the past that's why we can never have

00:21:08.900 economic opportunity and why our citizens were literally running away from their own homeland yeah and

00:21:14.340 we could see that in a circumstance where war-torn venezuela sends a bunch of refugees into colombia

00:21:21.380 those refugees start moving throughout central america and there are times when i do believe 0.99

00:21:27.380 countries start wars like for the purpose of creating that type of of refugee chaos and so i wouldn't put 1.00

00:21:33.460 it past maduro to have a false flag event i do wonder if if this thing gets kinetic with with maduro like

00:21:40.660 does does colombia help him do they provide any kind of meaningful support do they provide um refuge for

00:21:48.500 for different bandits that are going back and forth across the border how how far do you think petro

00:21:54.500 would go to back maduro well with unstable leaders such as gustavo petro the answer is you never truly

00:22:01.540 know yeah but i think they would definitely try to participate in helping maduro somehow that's so

00:22:07.460 crazy all the money we've put i think you're right i think you're right that they're they definitely

00:22:12.340 wouldn't be on our side let's be honest and so there would be directions from the petro government

00:22:17.860 to have colombia helping venezuela and when you think about all of the money we put in into getting

00:22:23.220 the colombian military capable getting them pilots getting them helicopters getting them all these drug

00:22:28.980 eradication tools and now like to see that american material wouldn't be in a meaningful fight alongside

00:22:37.780 america it really shows how these relationships like can't even be bought at times they're just

00:22:44.180 rented and sometimes we have to take an account that even if a nation seeks to do good even if a nation

00:22:50.740 seeks to establish proper diplomatic ties there's always or international organisms that are boycotting

00:22:57.700 them as you progress you've got an international institution trying to boycott that progress

00:23:02.980 sometimes you're not even from this region not even from this continent they're from overseas

00:23:07.700 and this is when geopolitics comes into play there's a lot of interests there's a lot of dark

00:23:13.380 criminal money in these structures that needs to move and as i mentioned previously if you restore

00:23:20.180 order you keep it from moving so you need an unstable region for these criminals to be able to

00:23:25.860 how close do you think the the drug cartels work with some of these ngos like do you think that 1.00

00:23:31.700 they they talk to each other do you think they just kind of read symbols of where people are doing

00:23:37.540 work i don't think these ngos necessarily work hand in hand with cartels but i do think they 0.80

00:23:43.300 they want the same thing i do believe they help create the conditions for these criminal structures

00:23:48.100 to operate freely obviously with dark purposes and something i i wonder if the cartels aren't putting

00:23:55.300 money into some of them particularly on the caravan side you know if if you've got an ability to move a

00:24:01.780 bunch of product move a bunch of people overwhelm u.s border patrol uh i i've always wondered whether or

00:24:09.220 not there's there's crossover money because it's also opaque right if you run for office if i run for

00:24:14.900 office the people who give us money have to there's a disclosure uh of sorts whereas with these ngos 0.98

00:24:21.620 oftentimes they're moving money from one shell entity to another shell entity and that very dark

00:24:27.860 purpose that emerges in their work and that's why it was so important when uh president bukele

00:24:32.980 enacted the foreign agents law here in olsalvago yeah tell us about that because uh a lot of ngos here 1.00

00:24:38.980 and a lot of institutions including a couple of digital blogs and newspapers that they were completely

00:24:45.620 sold out to the foros uh soros foundation like for example the main opposition uh against el salvador is

00:24:52.980 a um you could call them a a news medium but i wouldn't call them that i'd call them paid propaganda

00:25:00.260 is called el faro and these guys if you go on their website everything's against our government

00:25:06.020 everything's against el salvador and you scroll to the bottom and it says funded by the open society

00:25:11.460 foundation so that tells you everything you need to know it's no secret they're not even allowed under

00:25:16.980 the foreign agents law that you have well they would have uh they would have to pay uh their their

00:25:21.620 their fair share you know they're the uh of the donations they receive to the government which

00:25:26.740 is why they decided to uh leave el salvador and they set up i believe in costa rica if i'm not mistaken

00:25:32.420 i'm not sure and they're saying that they had to flee el salvador that they're being persecuted

00:25:37.300 they're not being persecuted there were people who did flee el salvador to costa rica and it was

00:25:42.420 a lot of the gangs actually the ones who aren't rounded up in sacat prison costa rica has become less

00:25:49.140 safe and part of that i think has been uh the fact that el salvador has become less tolerant of uh

00:25:56.340 this criminal behavior and and they're becoming more tolerant no uh you know not many gang members got

00:26:01.620 the opportunity to flee president bukele doesn't mess around he's a a fofo kind of guy you know 0.96

00:26:07.860 f around and find out so most gang members el salvador approximately started in around the early 2000s

00:26:15.860 with 10 to 12 000 gang members and the governments let it evolve they let it evolve until eventually it

00:26:22.020 was like over 100k gang members nationwide as you know you've been to seek out yourself about uh 80 000 of

00:26:28.980 them have been captured and um are going to be there for the remainder of the other 20 000 where

00:26:35.060 the other 25 probably in hiding that yeah but i think that some are hiding probably in the mountains

00:26:40.180 of honduras some are hiding in nicaragua some may be hiding in in costa rica um but i do want to talk

00:26:46.900 about the neighboring country honduras okay because we have this election coming up and this week on the

00:26:52.660 mac gates show we talked to some of the candidates in that election and there doesn't seem to be a lot of

00:26:57.700 optimism that this is going to be fair so so let's let's imagine a circumstance where before the

00:27:04.420 polls are even closed the left wing socialist china aligned zelaya government in in uh honduras just

00:27:13.780 declares victory for their chosen candidate if that happens how will el salvador react

00:27:20.580 i'm so excited when we get our merriweather farm shipments and you get a beautiful piece of

00:27:24.820 rib eye look look at that marbling now i take it out of the package let it get down to room temperature

00:27:30.340 all i've got on here is a little salt a little pepper and then a little avocado oil and then i've

00:27:35.140 had my pan preheating with a little oil head to merriweather farms.com and enter promo code matt g for 15

00:27:48.820 off your first order well i can't speak in on behalf of the government but i analyze i believe matt i

00:27:57.300 believe that uh it won't be a welcome reaction from el salvador because we believe here in firm

00:28:05.620 and true democracy that is something that needs to be where anybody can run where anyone can run and

00:28:11.460 anyone can be elected and the people have the say not the state not the ngos not foreign influences just

00:28:18.260 the people with their paper ballots radical idea in today's world my friend it sure is it sure is and

00:28:24.420 if we see any kind of uh any kind of disturbance in neighboring elections it's definitely something

00:28:33.460 that we should be concerned about and something that we won't be happy to hear about do you think

00:28:37.780 that you could see sanctions coming from el salvador toward honduras i i think the united states could

00:28:44.180 sanction honduras if this happens i wonder if that would be broadly held well i'm not sure if uh el

00:28:51.060 salvador is necessarily in a position to do that but i definitely can see president trump taking action

00:28:56.020 when it comes to that and i i as we as you know we have a very strong allegiance with the trump

00:29:01.940 administration so i could see us following suit this is just my opinion yeah however i must say the

00:29:07.220 following and um it's very important to to also mention i find it so hypocritical matt when you see

00:29:15.700 these international organizations right try to sometimes call us a dictatorship when maybe right

00:29:22.980 now we're the most democratic nation in all of central america the most transparent and not only that

00:29:28.980 president bukele is the only meat leader in this region that has successfully stood up to maduro

00:29:35.620 and negotiated the release of 10 u.s citizens that were in maduro's prisons alongside uh 80 venezuelan

00:29:44.420 prisoners political prisoners so how dare they compare el salvador to venezuela when el salvador is

00:29:52.020 the only country in the region that has successfully in alliance with the trump admin uh hit maduro and

00:29:59.220 they hit him where it hurts because that was his leverage that was maduro's leverage those 10 american

00:30:04.420 citizens which he would probably be using right now as leverage against the u.s totally if he still had

00:30:10.180 them that's actually a brilliant point i hadn't thought about it in those terms but we have this trend

00:30:15.220 de aragua uh capture in the united states those folks spend some time in prison here in el salvador

00:30:23.060 president bukele says fine maduro we'll give you your people back but in exchange you have arrested a bunch of

00:30:29.380 political prisoners here in venezuela you've arrested americans and you have to release your political

00:30:33.860 prisoners and it was a stroke of genius and that would absolutely be a point of leverage right now

00:30:39.860 for maduro if bukele had not taken that uh that opportunity away from him and you know it but thinking

00:30:46.980 again about about these honduran elections you know that are coming up do you have any hope for the right

00:30:51.940 i mean i i i wonder i've had some friends of mine say look you know this uh the national party has got

00:30:58.340 a very charismatic candidate titos gets out there and you know yucks it up with the people man of the

00:31:03.940 people um can they is there is there a a vote that comes out maybe that nobody's expecting look realistically

00:31:12.340 speaking matt it that there can be hundreds of charismatic leaders but it's not so much about charisma it's

00:31:19.540 more about are they sold out to the establishment because what good is a right-wing leader for

00:31:24.820 example if he's sold out to the establishment the same thing the same interests that's being served

00:31:29.700 yeah no it's actually a really good point that i i often become too binary about that and i think well

00:31:35.380 you know if they're a left-wing leader they have to be uh aligned with china and maduro and we can't

00:31:41.780 tolerate them and so who on the right can win yeah uh and you're you're correct to point out that

00:31:47.460 not all of those options are good options that sometimes the people that line up on the right

00:31:52.500 are just as willing to be bought off by china and corrupt and willing to allow gangs to murder people 0.98

00:31:59.300 and so in do you see a champion emerging in honduras personally i don't see that right now they

00:32:05.940 don't have their bukele yet i i think you can you really can't clone bukele you know that would be

00:32:11.380 ideal a lot of people tell me we should clone your president you know yeah i got 30 years from now

00:32:15.860 we'll have one i do think that it takes the guy you know or yeah yeah yeah i understand i think that

00:32:20.900 there was this fiction perpetrated that if you just had the right institutions that those institutions

00:32:27.940 would grow people who would be able to serve in these roles in a dignified and appropriate way

00:32:35.060 and the reality is as we've been discussing is the institutions then become frankenstein's monster

00:32:40.180 they become the thing that perpetuates the violence and the poverty and uh the despair and so now you

00:32:47.460 see president bukele come in and really limit the ability of some of those institutions to do harm to

00:32:53.380 the people and and it took the guy i mean in the united states it's a perfect analogy and just to

00:32:59.940 clarify these i mean these ngos and whatnot they're still allowed to operate in the country as president

00:33:04.580 bukele himself said i'm not banning them don't uh so he shouldn't be uh called as they want to

00:33:10.740 label him authoritarian or anything he's just putting in place the same restrictions that the

00:33:14.820 u.s has put in place for these kind of ngos you know and uh as he's oh we should enforce them more 1.00

00:33:20.660 in our country yeah i know this will track you but there are foreign countries that are attempting

00:33:24.900 influence operations in the united states and at times we're too permissive of that and i think we

00:33:29.700 could look to president bukele's leadership as a as a shining example yeah i think it's time for the

00:33:35.460 nations of the world matt to reclaim their sovereignty but the real sovereignty because

00:33:40.500 one thing is uh coming out on independence day waving the flag of your nation i'm free i'm a free man

00:33:46.740 and another thing is actually truly being sovereign being allowed to make your own decisions without

00:33:53.460 having to ask for permission from people that don't put the interests of your citizens first

00:33:59.620 i believe it is extremely important to put your citizens uh your citizens first that is the role

00:34:06.260 of any elected official president they all say they all nobody ever says elect me because i'm going to

00:34:12.180 sell out you know they all say they're going to do it and uh yeah there are you know we've been

00:34:16.900 talking about these corrupt forces george soros chief among them who draw people away from that core

00:34:22.500 promise that every politician makes i want to talk about panama too this has been big time in the

00:34:28.020 news in the united states we just get got a big deal done our ambassador there kevin cabrera is

00:34:34.020 outstanding and now we will be able to move u.s warships through without paying these heavy fines and

00:34:41.060 and heavy tolls when trump was talking about the panama canal and repatriating it was that something

00:34:48.580 people were paying attention to here or did that seem like a distant uh a distant conflict well i i can

00:34:53.380 tell you i recently traveled to panama and the panamanians certainly were okay i know they noticed

00:34:58.340 yes yes and uh and you know you you had a lot of mixed feelings on the topic but as always i i believe

00:35:05.700 that president trump has his way his strategy of negotiating on behalf of the american people and

00:35:11.780 he's been successful so far you know he has his way of applying pressures that are necessary to to

00:35:16.500 people that uh might not seem too keen in actually being allies but thankfully um for us in el salvador

00:35:24.420 that's not the case because we have a great friendship with the trump administration and allow

00:35:29.380 me to tell you um well this is not off the record i was going to say off the record but i want it uh with

00:35:36.260 with the biden administration it there uh there was a lot of friction because they wanted to come to

00:35:41.300 central american countries and dictate what central american countries were supposed to do

00:35:46.180 and personally i'm against foreign nations whichever nation it might be telling other countries how to

00:35:52.500 do their business unless it's obviously something that's affecting said nation right but in this case

00:35:58.580 these are sovereign decisions that need to be made by central american countries and you had biden

00:36:03.460 officials come arrogantly to these countries to try and dictate what should be done and a lot of latin

00:36:09.620 americans guatemalan salvadorans and doards you name it took offense to that and with the trump

00:36:14.820 administration we see a complete turnaround we see uh an administration that's willing to actually be

00:36:21.700 allies with our nations with our central american nations and to cooperate as as as sovereigns you

00:36:28.980 know that have decided and agreed diplomatically to work together one of those uh allies is argentina as

00:36:37.060 well absolutely and this has been all over the news in the united states uh currency swap agreement on

00:36:43.540 beef uh melee gets saved in the elections it works i guess i guess if we had to do this it really would

00:36:48.820 have sucked if it would have failed and melee would have bombed in the elections but uh but do you see

00:36:54.580 melee as uh you know kind of a robin to uh president bukele's batman or are the internal struggles there

00:37:02.580 with inflation going to really kneecap his ability to be a more driving force in latin america look i

00:37:08.980 think melee is great for argentina and each nation has its own problems and that they're the ones that

00:37:15.700 know best how to solve them as president bukele has said for example in uh his recent independence

00:37:20.740 day speech he mentioned in el salvador we created a game plan for salvadorans made by salvadorans not

00:37:28.580 from guys sitting in new york or europe in an office that haven't touched uh touched ground in

00:37:33.380 our country and i think the same applies for argentina we see how uh how melee is working around

00:37:40.500 the obstacles that he's finding because we have to take into account when a leader such as president

00:37:47.620 bukele president trump president melee come into power it's not going to be a shift uh it's not going

00:37:52.820 to happen overnight there's a lot of institutional entanglements that they inherit from previous

00:37:58.500 governments and it takes a while we saw it in the us with president trump during his first

00:38:03.060 administration during his first term he had a lot of issues he had to tackle and now he's got more

00:38:09.220 of the hang of things you know yeah so so much more comfortable now yes and maybe it's the russia

00:38:15.140 hoax isn't going on and you know they're not trying to his own government's not trying to throw him in

00:38:18.900 prison but uh it is noticeable and it's interesting you even see that from here yeah it's a transition

00:38:25.700 that every government has to go through now the the key factor here is is the leader wise enough

00:38:34.340 to be able to see these knots these institutional knots and undo them without alerting all the people

00:38:41.380 that don't want these knots to be undone yeah because yeah well yeah there's a whole infrastructure

00:38:45.940 that is held together by those knots correct and that infrastructure oftentimes is working against the

00:38:50.580 people of the country exactly uh we uh so so we talk about el salvador a lot and whenever i mention

00:38:58.820 it in the united states invariably the conversation is oh yeah that's the bitcoin country that's the

00:39:04.020 bitcoin guy when president bukele comes into office he has this massive bitcoin adoption push and bitcoin

00:39:12.580 drops substantially and there were real concerns here take us to i mean we'll get to where we are now in

00:39:19.380 this historic conference that the president is uh speaking at but in those moments where bitcoin

00:39:26.420 was down president bukele was bought in must have been pretty rough around here honestly speaking uh

00:39:32.580 president bukele i believe that he always sees many steps ahead so i i didn't see any concern on his

00:39:39.460 side nobody was sweating well the the opposition obviously they're trying to find something to attack

00:39:45.060 him with sure the the the the minuscule opposition that we have in this country however uh even that

00:39:51.060 didn't play out well for them because right now bitcoin went up historic records and el salvador's

00:39:57.140 profiting big time from it i believe that it is a great alternative to gold reserves but el salvador's

00:40:03.060 also purchasing gold now i don't know if you heard that yeah and um i don't tell the bitcoiners

00:40:09.220 the bitcoin maximalists find out that you're into any other asset class and you're dead to them

00:40:14.020 but i think it's why it's wise to hedge real world assets with digital assets i think that is

00:40:20.580 that is the way people are going to be building investment portfolios going forward and so yeah i mean

00:40:25.780 they it drops you say nobody was sweating i'm not so sure about that herbert but then we see bitcoin

00:40:31.300 rise in value we see the bonds that el salvador is issuing get far better treatment in the marketplace

00:40:37.860 and now the innovation around blockchain and cryptocurrency is finding its way to el salvador

00:40:43.940 there is a major conference going on right now with a lot of folks in the digital financial space

00:40:50.580 what's it like having all of that focus and interest here in your country no it's amazing because in the

00:40:57.540 past matt at most you'd have a couple of tourists that would hit the beach come and surf and risk their

00:41:04.500 lives because we had gangs running loose right before president bukele i call it high risk tourism

00:41:10.820 back in the day now it's the safest option you've got but um it's really heartwarming as a salvadoran

00:41:18.740 citizen to see a nation that was once forgotten and doomed i would say to be completely restored to

00:41:27.060 have uh to have a rebirth a resurrection you could say uh as you know i'm uh i'm a firm catholic i believe

00:41:34.420 in christ and i think that god has given el salvador a second opportunity for its citizens to not only

00:41:43.940 build a future in their homeland but to also send a message out to the world and that message is that

00:41:50.580 no matter how terrible your situation is there's a way out and that way out is god no question about

00:41:58.500 it and god's hand has been in this the the land literally named for the savior uh getting uh getting

00:42:04.500 indeed uh saved in more ways than one and uh you know having the smiles return to the faces of the

00:42:11.860 people here is something that we'd like to see in other places and just why we cover it so much and

00:42:15.780 why we're so interested is because it's a stark contrast to the rise of failed states that we see

00:42:22.260 elsewhere in the world and we hope we're not seeing a failed state right next door to you in in honduras

00:42:28.260 if the this election goes bad if there's violence and do you think that there'll be a pressure my

00:42:34.420 migratory pressure where people will be fleeing honduras into el salvador well and do you think el

00:42:39.220 salvador is ready for that that that depends on how honduras would handle their economy you know because

00:42:44.340 it there it can't what if they just start killing people because of the election do you really think

00:42:48.420 it would get to that i i don't know you know i see what's happening in venezuela where i mean maduro

00:42:54.260 loses and then he goes out and says i not only did i win but anyone who says i lost is an election

00:42:59.620 criminal and starts trying to lock them up and by the way that kind of hearkened to a pretty dark

00:43:04.980 period in the united states where if you question the election everybody acted like you were a threat to

00:43:09.620 the nation and now uh you've got so many venezuelans in honduras do i think that that could get violent 0.99

00:43:15.940 i do and uh you know i i hope that the progress here is not subject to some sort of uh some sort of

00:43:24.580 external negative pressure that you didn't ask for but that would be a an outgrowth of this embrace

00:43:32.820 of socialism no uh el salvador has uh found its stability thank god under bukele's leadership and

00:43:38.660 i think matt that regardless of what happens in honduras the bukele effect is growing in the region

00:43:46.420 each day this domino effect is getting heavier it's getting bigger and more leaders are adopting

00:43:54.100 policies similar to president bukele's policies now are they going to be as effective that's what my

00:44:00.580 people might be asking the answer is probably not because they're still fighting with that

00:44:07.380 establishment that they've got to take down within their own nations in el salvador things uh occurred

00:44:14.100 very uh very specifically you know it was divinely aligned you could say the establishment was brought

00:44:21.060 down president bukele came in and that set the ground uh to be able to transform the nation but if you

00:44:28.740 still it's a bloop this is debated often i debated someone on the show i think last week about this

00:44:35.460 because some folks say well you could only do that in el salvador el salvador had the roadways

00:44:40.100 you needed it's got a densely populated populace you know you can't do that in nicaragua guatemala

00:44:46.980 honduras and i call bs on that i think if president bukele would have been the president of

00:44:52.020 any of these countries absolutely were in shambles and had uh he would have inspired the popular

00:44:57.540 support he would have inspired support within the honest people in the government to do the right

00:45:02.180 thing and so i i don't buy the excuses from the other places you can be like this place you can have

00:45:07.860 the turnaround you have to have the willpower you have to have the confidence and then i i don't think

00:45:13.620 you're wrong you have to have the hand of god uh that that will guide you but that hand is there for

00:45:17.780 you it is there for people and yeah we we just have to embrace it and accept it uh herbert i i you know

00:45:24.260 we've been having this conversation i'd love to know what are some of like your uh political

00:45:29.140 influences where do you go to absorb the news read the news if we have listeners who uh are are

00:45:35.700 inspired to follow some of these topics where would you direct them absolutely well i would invite them

00:45:40.900 to follow our president naib bukele and honestly i'm a big fan of your show on oan i'll tell you that

00:45:46.500 i got a lot of my news from you matt well thank you i appreciate it and i am matt gates the host of

00:45:51.060 the matt gates show on one american news we're on nine o'clock eastern six pacific make sure to give

00:45:55.700 us a five-star rating right review so that you can continue to be part of our anchorman community and

00:46:01.380 i am traveling and you know i didn't come here without my travel kit i picked up from all family

00:46:05.940 pharmacy you go to allfamilypharmacy.com forward slash matt use code matt 10 and then you are set

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00:46:32.340 as you prepare to head out and spend time with family and enjoy the holiday season make sure you

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00:46:43.620 forward slash matt code matt 10 stand up for health care freedom these are folks doing things

00:46:48.980 the right way well herbert i really appreciate the conversation we've been able to have this evening

00:46:53.700 you know i think when we get together and reignite uh our discussion you're going to see very different

00:46:59.940 circumstances in venezuela almost certainly just with the rapid increase in pressure there and i sure hope

00:47:07.140 we see something better in honduras this this left-wing uh coalition that we see in the americas

00:47:13.460 is something that must be defeated not just for the sake of the united states but but i truly think

00:47:18.900 for the for the sake of the people who live here who have uh who have toiled for too long i'll give

00:47:23.060 you the last word absolutely matt i think that we're seeing a global trend and when the where the days

00:47:28.020 of cultural marxism are coming to an end there's a lot of battles that are being unleashed at the moment

00:47:34.180 and hopefully we will come out successful because this is a time for common sense to reign this is

00:47:40.660 a time to get close to god once again we must remember that the main pillars of western society

00:47:48.580 are christianity they've built western society and they have sustained western society and we're

00:47:53.940 seeing a massive revival on all fronts matt we're gonna win and how can folks follow you on social media

00:47:59.380 i'm uh herbert esmahan on every social media platform herbert you are uh you are an enlightened

00:48:06.500 voice in these times and we wish the best to you and to your country and to this region and we

00:48:11.860 certainly hope that folks will be joining us again for a future episode of anchorman want to see more

00:48:16.500 great videos like this click on the link below to subscribe to oan live and watch dan ball's real america

00:48:22.260 and the matt gates show on dish channel 212. tune in subscribe and watch today

The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - November 14, 2025

The Anchormen Show Episode 75 - The Land of The Savior w⧸ Herbert Esmahan

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