Senator Ted Cruz (00:15):
Good evening, everyone. It's a pleasure to be in El Salvador. I've spent the day here, had a series of meetings. Just finished a meeting with the minister of justice. Later tonight, I will be meeting with President Bukele. And I am here for a number of reasons. One, to strengthen the strong friendship and alliance between the United States and El Salvador. El Salvador is a critical partner for the United States. We have closely-aligned interests. And I will say the job that President Bukele is doing here is truly extraordinary.
(00:55)
The success in terms of reducing crimes, reducing murders, and taking on gangs that were terrorizing the people of El Salvador, the success is truly amazing. It is a demonstration of what leadership can do when you focus on the number one priority of keeping your citizens safe, protecting the men and women you were elected to represent. And I will say President Bukele's close alliance with the United States helping us together stand against these transnational gangs, these transnational cartels that have murdered far too many people here in El Salvador and have murdered far too many people in the United States.
Translator (01:43):
[foreign language 00:01:50].
Senator Ted Cruz (03:01):
With that, happy to answer any questions.
Translator (03:38):
The government of El Salvador has asked the Trump administration to send gang leaders that are currently in custody in the US to come here to El Salvador to stand trial, and they have been accused of narcoterrorism. So, would you agree that they should be sent here to stand trial?
Senator Ted Cruz (04:02):
I think it is a proposal that makes a great deal of sense. I think Americans are grateful for President Bukele for being willing to take violent MS-13 gang members and gang leaders to take custody of them and to ensure that they are brought to justice. We have seen MS-13 and violent gangs commit horrific crimes in the United States. We have seen them rape and murder Americans. We have seen them peddling poison and engaging in human trafficking. And President Trump, rightly, has declared MS-13 as a terrorist organization. We are bringing the full force of American law enforcement to stopping these violent gangs and violence cartels. And President Bukele is a very important ally in bringing that same seriousness of purpose that we will not allow violent terrorist criminal organizations to murder our citizens.
Translator (06:42):
Federal agents found evidence in El Salvador that President Bukele at that time negotiated with the MS-13 gang and that a gang leader was released from a US prison. And would you trust an ally that has negotiated with gangs?
Senator Ted Cruz (07:02):
Well, I'll say the job President Bukele is doing right now, taking on the gangs, going after the gang leaders, imprisoning the gang leaders, imprisoning mass murderers, the results speak for themselves. In 2015, El Salvador had the highest murder rate in the entire world. 100 people killed per 100,000. Tragically. This was the murder capital of the world. Last year that dropped from 100 people per 100,000 to 1.9 people per 100,000. That is a 98% decrease in the murder rate. Those results are indisputable. And I will tell you as I have been here today and I have been speaking with El Salvadorans, I've been speaking with US military, I've been speaking with US Embassy personnel, I've been speaking with leaders from the government.
(08:05)
I've asked consistently the question, "How do you believe that the current administration is doing?" I will admit, today, I've literally not had a conversation with anyone who has said anything other than that it's been extraordinary, that they feel safer, that their family is safer, that their kids are safer, that they're able to walk home at night without being afraid of being kidnapped or assaulted or murdered. That's the most important job of any leader to keep his or her constituents safe, and I would say the results here speak for themselves.
Translator (10:16):
In your meeting with Mr. Bukele, are you going to ask him to receive migrants that are now detained in the US, migrants from different nationalities, as what happened before with the Venezuelans?
Senator Ted Cruz (10:34):
Well, I will say President Trump and President Bukele have a very good relationship and they have been negotiating the terms of deportations from the United States to El Salvador. President Bukele has been an important partner in responding to what has been a crisis in the United States for the last four years. Unfortunately, the previous president of the United States, Joe Biden, under his administration, we had effectively an open border for four years. We saw over 12 million illegal immigrants come into the United States. We saw murderers and rapists and gang members released into America, and we saw countless Americans murdered and the victims of violent crime because of those open borders.
(11:21)
In the United States, the rate of illegal border crossings dropped 99% when President Trump was sworn back into office. That is the difference between having a leader who will enforce the law and protect your citizens, and having a leader who is complicit with open borders. President Bukele has demonstrated similar leadership here in El Salvador. In both instances, you have a leader elected by the people who is not going to surrender to the cartels and the criminals, but rather, is going to protect the people. And I think the consequence of that, securing the border and the United States, treating the gang members and the cartels as terrorists and doing whatever is necessary to keep our citizens safe, I think that's the right approach to public safety.
Translator (14:28):
I want to mention again the investigation carried out by the Vulcan Task Force, and they found evidence that President Bukele had a pact with the gangs, that he had negotiated with the gangs. And of course, as you mentioned, homicides have been reduced undoubtedly. But on the one hand you have that, and on the other hand you have this negotiation with the gang. What do you think of that, since it's the Vulcan Task Force that they investigated and found out this evidence?
Senator Ted Cruz (15:09):
So, I'm not going to speak to internal matters within El Salvador, but what I am going to say is the results are compelling. The results are unprecedented. When you go from the murder capital of the world, the country with the highest rate of homicide of any country on Planet Earth, to what we have now, one of the safest countries in the world in just a few years, that is astonishing. That is staggering. And that is cause for celebration. It is cause for celebration. There is a reason President Bukele was re-elected with such overwhelming margins and it's cause for celebration.
(15:53)
When I was meeting with the minister of justice, he was describing how other countries in Central America and South America are reaching out to El Salvador saying, "How do we achieve results like you have here? How do we take on the cartels? How do we take on the gangs? How do we take on the murderers and criminals who are targeting our citizens?" And that is because the results have been tremendous. The same is true in the United States. When our illegal border crossings drop 99%, the results speak for themselves. I represent the great state of Texas. The United States has a southern border that is 2,000 miles long. More than half of it, 1,200 miles of that is the state of Texas. There's no state in the United States who felt the pain, the harm, the consequences of illegal immigration more than the state of Texas over the last four years.
(16:52)
And so, we are seeing firsthand the results of a strong president following the law. And I will say here, the murder rate dropping 98% in El Salvador demonstrates that the approach of the government is working and it's keeping the citizens safer. That's a good thing.
Translator (17:31):
[foreign language 00:17:32].
Senator Ted Cruz (17:31):
[inaudible 00:18:42].