EXCLUSIVE — Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is set to announce the creation of a bipartisan Congressional El Salvador Caucus.
Gaetz traveled to El Salvador last month to attend the second inauguration of President Nayib Bukele, alongside Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) and other members of Congress. Gonzalez will be the inaugural co-chairman of the caucus.
In a press release from Gaetz’s office, the new caucus was described as aiming to better promote understanding of the relationship between El Salvador and the United States, strengthen bilateral relations, and promote understanding of the country among members of Congress and their constituents.
Gaetz has given high praise to Bukele both before and after his trip, holding him up as a model for American conservatives to follow.
Recently, Gaetz introduced legislation that would require the Internal Revenue Service to accept bitcoin as payment for federal income taxes. His move was credited to his trip to El Salvador, where he met with Bukele. One of Bukele’s first efforts was adopting bitcoin as legal tender in the country, an embrace that Gaetz wants to recreate in the U.S.
Bukele’s approach to governance has also earned him some critics in the U.S., however. The Salvadoran president’s strongman approach to gangs has earned him criticism from some U.S. Democrats, such as Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who has voiced concerns about his human rights record. Gaetz was one of the first to defend Bukele from Omar’s criticism in January.
Bukele won the 2019 election on an anti-establishment platform, particularly around promises to crack down on gang violence, which had paralyzed the country. Years into his administration, a massive statewide crackdown on gangs in 2022 effectively destroyed the infamous MS-13 and 18th Street gangs, which had de facto ruled the country for more than a decade. Roughly 75,163 suspected gang members were arrested, according to Al Jazeera, and thrown in specially designed prisons.
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For all its criticism, the policy has led the Massachusetts-sized country to go from the most violent country on Earth to one of the safest, boasting the second-lowest murder rate in the Western Hemisphere behind only Canada.
Though the murder rate had declined for several years since an all-time peak in 2015 of 106 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, largely due to government negotiations with, and appeasement of, the two leading gangs, Bukele’s approach effectively broke the power of the gangs. El Salvador’s current murder rate is 92% lower than that of 2015, while the number of Salvadorans attempting to illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border declined by 44%, the Wall Street Journal reported.
