Daniel Ortega congratulates Nayib Bukele on his presidential re-election in El Salvador

The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, and his wife, the vice president, Rosario Murillo, congratulated this Monday the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, for his re-election for a new term in the general elections held on Sunday.

(Also read: With 70% of the minutes scrutinized, Nayib Bukele sweeps the votes in El Salvador)

“Brother President Bukele, we have followed with respect, interest and appreciation as Central American brothers, the electoral process that took place in your homeland this Sunday, February 4, in the atmosphere of peace and tranquility, which Salvadoran families deserve,” wrote Ortega and Murillo in a letter sent to Bukele.

In the letter, the Nicaraguan presidential couple congratulated Bukele for his victory, as well as his Nuevas Ideas party, and all the groups and movements participating in the general elections, “invoking the Almighty to pour out abundant blessings on those beloved people, with whom we have shared, and share so much.”

“In the spirit of the Central American Union, always quoting (the poet Rubén) Darío, we want to reiterate our vocation for peace and future, creating for our people the conditions of work, security, justice and life that we deserve,” they continued.

(You can read: Improving the economy, Nayib Bukele's next challenge in El Salvador after security)

Likewise, Ortega and Murillo invoked Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, “Saint Romero of America, who in his martyrdom knew how to represent and vindicate the rights of that heroic, hard-working and fighting people,” to ratify their “commitment to work together for development, in community and brotherhood of shared future.”

Above all, they added, “aware of our full right to sovereign security, which we highlight as a Mesoamerican urgency, with the knowledge and experience that we are accumulating, amidst so much struggle and all the paths of dignity and pride, national and Central American.”

In addition, they wished Bukele more success “on paths of victories for Salvadoran and Central American families” and they concluded with a poem that Rubén Darío wrote in San Salvador in 1889 about the Central American Union.

(Keep reading: The US recommendation to Bukele after recognizing his re-election in El Salvador)

Ortega, in power since 2007, is leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), an ally of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN).

The Sandinista president has granted Nicaraguan nationality to former Salvadoran presidents Mauricio Funes (2010-2014) and Salvador Sánchez Cerén (2014-2019), who are wanted by the Justice Department of their country on charges of alleged corruption.

On Sunday night, Bukele proclaimed himself the winner of the elections before the results were known.

(We recommend: Elections in El Salvador: Bukele declares himself the winner, but the official announcement is still missing)

With 70.25% of the minutes processed in the preliminary scrutiny of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), now reaches 1,662,313 votesfollowed very far by the FMLN, left with 139,025 votes and the National Republican Alliance (Arena, right), with 122,926.

These results must be ratified in a final scrutiny with the physical records and this process takes several days.

If the data is confirmed, Bukele would become the first president of El Salvador to be re-elected and the majority in Congress would allow him to continue his war against gangs through an emergency regime, implemented since March 2022.

EFE