The former diplomat assures the country has disappeared from the international agenda of the United States, he considers that it is an execution problem that must be solved soon.
Since President Nayib Bukele took office as President of the Republic in June last year, to date, you have not yet appointed El Salvador’s ambassador to the United States, what opinion do you have of that and how it affects the country?
The position of El Salvador’s ambassador to the United States is the main place for Salvadoran diplomacy because the United States is obviously our main ally and friend in the conception of bilateral foreign policy that El Salvador has in the United States. USA
RELATED
It seems very interesting to me why the reasons for delaying a decision of this nature for more than eight months, because I consider that El Salvador’s foreign policy to the United States, its bilateral agenda, is quite an agenda I would say, that quite responds to the expectations that the USA. USA It has a country like El Salvador.
In this sense, if you ask me about El Salvador’s foreign policy towards the United States, I tell you that fundamentally I agree with that policy, we believe that we have problems of execution, in politics, nothing that cannot be solved, but it is important that those execution problems are resolved and soon.
For all the political environment that the country has to have to safeguard its interests, regardless of whether the presidency of the United States is won by President (Donald) Trump and is reelected or is won by any of the Democratic candidates who are currently scoring , which is Senator (Bernard) Sanders and Vice President (Joe) Biden, because whoever wins, we have to execute that policy in a way that has benefits to our interests, that are really tangible, that really benefit the Salvadorans who are here and those who live in the United States.
That is not going to happen automatically, those interests are not going to be safeguarded and promoted in a self-generating way, those interests must be worked on and there is a void that must be filled.
How does the lack of appointment of the figure of ambassador to the United States affect El Salvador?
What has happened to us, the main cost we are paying is that we have disappeared from the political and diplomatic agenda of the United States. The events of 9F (February 9) demonstrate it, that if the interests of El Salvador are not promoted, lobbied, are not exposed in the United States, of any nature, the United States will take measures based on its national security interests. , without taking into consideration, I think, some legitimate interests that El Salvador has and that could perfectly negotiate with the United States.
To whom could you attribute the fact that the Government has not appointed an ambassador?
I don’t know, that question can only be answered by President Bukele. I do recognize that there is an important gap that needs to be filled and quickly and that we have to appear on the radar screen of decision makers in the United States, not only in the administration of President Trump, but also in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
After so many months in which there is no representative of El Salvador in the United States, what is the greatest risk we face?
The main risk that I have always pointed out on these issues is that they take us for granted, it is always a risk and I think it is important to recognize that the United States at the government level has its own interests, political, diplomatic, national security agenda and what all you want is for our interests to appear on that agenda of national security, political interests, and diplomatic interests.
You pointed out the importance of diplomacy …
The diplomacy of the United States is a very serious diplomacy, very rigid, very vertical, here an ambassador of any country, of those who have worked in the United States, has absolutely no maneuvering capacity to support, approve or disapprove of any such action. type, but comes a specific directive from the White House, the National Security Agency and directly from the Secretary of State of the United States.
That is in the case of the United States, but in the case of El Salvador, for example, we saw a diplomatic corps meet with deputies after the event of February 9 in the Legislative Assembly
The Diplomatic Corps reacted, did not prevent, nor will it prevent the Diplomatic Corps, there are countries like Mexico, for example, that have a traditional policy of non-intervention since the beginning of the last century. The Mexican ambassador will never take any position in relation to this other than an order from the president that is channeled through his Foreign Ministry, not to mention the United States ambassador who has a whole line of command and authority that I explained graphically in the presentation.
