Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has described the mega-prisons in El Salvador, where thousands of gang members have been transferred, as “concentration camps.”
“The concentration camp in El Salvador, full of young people, thousands and thousands imprisoned, gives one the shivers,” the Colombian leader said during a speech.
The Colombian leader added that Bogota has achieved “the same” as El Salvador regarding the homicide rate, although he said that “the press will not recognize it”.
“We also managed to reduce the homicide rate, crime, and violence, but not through prisons, but through universities, schools, spaces for dialogue, spaces for poor people to stop being poor,” he said.
Bukele was quick to respond to these statements, affirming that “results outweigh rhetoric”, adding that he wishes “that Colombia actually manages to lower the homicide rates”, as the Salvadorans have “achieved”.
The two presidents have maintained a scuffle on the social network Twitter.
“We did not build prisons, but universities. It is good to compare experiences. I propose an international forum,” Petro has indicated through his official social network profile.
After that, Bukele criticized the comparison provided by Petro, pointing out that he has provided data from 30 years ago when he did not govern the country.
“Since 1993? 30 years… Did you govern 30 years ago? Bogota? Aren’t you president of Colombia?” he has stated, notifying that his country has gone from 100 homicides to “single digit figures”, adding that “the reduction has been fast because the dead do not recover”.
With information from LGI