Nayib Bukele and his brother enraged by the investigation which reveals their new wealth

A few weeks ago, two Salvadoran media published a report where they revealed that the president of El Salvador Nayib Bukele his two brothers and his wife had acquired 34 properties during the first five years of his government. The expense amounts to $9 million.

And even if for several days silence remained from the Bukele family, last Wednesday, the president reacted on his X account, where He told reporters to “don’t be stupid.”

“They are naive. We are not perfect and I am sure there will be many things to criticize and question. But corruption? “Don’t be stupid.” wrote.

This statement comes after the same media Regional Editorial, Focos and Dromómanos highlighted his latest research where did they find this The president’s brother and advisor, Karim Bukele, bought a building with Yusef Bukele in the historic center of the capital, San Salvador, for $1.3 million.

It would have been three months after the approval of the law which exempts from taxes those who invest in said zone.

This accusation was the straw that broke the camel’s back for the Bukele family, who They did not hesitate to use their social networks to criticize journalists behind the reports.

On September 20, the first investigation that put Nayib Bukele and his family on the ropes was released: They have reportedly acquired 34 new luxury properties and estates valued at $9.2 million.

Among them are land overlooking Lake Coatepeque, an exclusive area of ​​the Central American country, seven coffee plantations, two country plots and several luxury apartments in the capital.

According to the report, The purchases were made personally and through long-bankrupt family businesses.

This is where the doubt appeared, and it is At least two of the Bukele family companies have grown their assets exponentially and in isolation. Some are said to have achieved this through mortgage loans from private banks, even though they did not have enough capital to secure the debt.

The second report, which ended up disturbing the Bukeles, was the “investment” that Karim Bukele, the president’s brother, made in a building in the historic center of San Salvador for $1.3 million.

As reported The country This district of the capital is one of the Bukeles’ biggest bets since they came to power. Now they are redeveloping the place and The government has taken responsibility for eliminating street vendors in order to make it an area of ​​interest for tourism and hotel investments.

Nayib Bukele has almost never responded to information published by independent media on the irregularities he has committed since his debut in politics. like when he made a pact with gangs to reduce homicides.

However, the recent investigations would have struck a chord with the president, who reacted on his social network X account.

“Soros-paid ‘journalists’ were ordered to attack with alleged corruption cases. “None of their ‘research’ stands up to the analysis of an accountant”, the president wrote.

After calling journalists “imbeciles”, he assured that “After my family, my only mission in this life is my inheritance . The only thing that keeps me up at night is how future generations will judge me (and whether I will exist for them). »

“To think that I would destroy both things (my family and my inheritance) for money (that I could not even comfortably spend) is not to understand the minds of those who are fighting. But hey, maybe it’s lucky to have opponents (as they call themselves) with such small minds.

He concluded: “They don’t understand what league we play in.”

For his part, Karim Bukele, brother and advisor to the Salvadoran president, also reacted on his X account with a long text full of arguments against the journalistic investigation.

“The logic would have been to buy SEVERAL buildings BEFORE their price increased due to the interventions. I would have paid less than a quarter of what it cost me. But no, I waited for everything to happen, because it was the morally right thing to do. I did it under MY NAME.

It ended with: “So I’m sorry, I will continue to invest in my country, even if it bothers you; use my name and declare my income, unlike certain people who I will no longer speak about.

But the reactions don’t stop there.

Jaime Quintanilla, the main journalist of the publications that made the Bukeles uncomfortable, assured in his X account that The company with which Karim Bukele purchased the building did not submit its balance sheets to the public registry, a violation of Salvadoran law.

“I’ll leave it to you so you can get busy marinating your ‘abomination’ towards us.” replied the president’s brother. He defended himself by claiming to have personally transferred in the name of the company a “small house that he had inherited” to transform it into a company.

In the same way, Bukele’s brother continued to respond to various users who questioned his purchase. “These people are sick”, “I keep explaining to them and they act like they don’t understand or really don’t understand (which I think is even worse)”, read some of their comments.

SO, Journalist Jaime Quintanilla asked Karim Bukele to give him a copy of the documents that supported all his claims nevertheless, The advisor refused.

This information is kept confidential by the Supreme Court and therefore cannot be obtained through transparency either.

Furthermore, last Thursday, Quintanilla suggested that Karim Bukele personally meet one of his accountants to explain the purchases, however, He stopped responding to messages.

For his part, the Association of Journalists of El Salvador (APES) made a call “to the government of President Bukele to stop stigmatizing, threatening and monitoring journalists whose sole mission is to monitor the use and abuse of power within the government. »

They thus assured that they would be “attentive to any action endangering the integrity of the journalist and the media alliance which published the investigation”.