Permit me, our dear readers of this column, to present to you the following speech which I find to be of utmost importance. I would like to highlight how the President of the Republic of El Salvador, Nayib Armando Bukele, delivered his speech. He did not read it from a written script, which means that he didn’t prepare any. Instead, he spoke every word straight from his mind and heart. The following is the speech President Bukele gave at the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, dated September 20, 2022. It is as follows:

Madam President of the General Assembly, my compatriot and Ambassador to the United Nations; Your Excellency as Heads of State and Government; distinguished members of different delegations; my wife Gabriela and my daughter Layla; ladies and gentlemen, and principally to the peoples of the nations of the world:

I bring you greetings from the land of surfing, volcanoes, coffee, peace, Bitcoin and freedom. Almost all of the above is easily verifiable: anyone who goes to El Salvador will find the best surfing beaches in the world, volcanoes everywhere, incredible coffee; you will be able to walk with peace and tranquility through any corner of our country, and especially, you will find a united people fighting for their freedom. And that is precisely what I have come to speak about on this podium, at the United Nations General Assembly. Of freedom. The one that my people yearn for, and the one that all the peoples of the world yearn for. And it is that freedom is a word that is easy to say; but that requires struggle, perseverance and many sacrifices, for it to be true. The freedom to choose where we want to go and how we want to achieve it. The freedom to define our path as human beings.

But to be free, like much of what defines us, depends on how others see us, but, above all, on how we see ourselves. Therefore, in addition to deciding that we want to be free, it is an essential requirement that the powerful respect our freedom. I come from a people that for a long time saw itself as less than the others. I come from a people where we never had the courage to make our own decisions. I come from a people where our destiny was always controlled by others. I come from a people that only owns the smallest country in the American continent. And that, even that small property on that little piece of land, that you can barely see on the map, is not respected by countries that have a lot more territory, a lot more money, a lot more power and that CORRECTLY think they are the owners of their country; but who INCORRECTLY think that they also own ours. And it is that a group of powerful countries not only have much more than all the others, but they also believe that they are owners of the little that the countries that are not powerful have. It is as if someone lived in a very small and very humble house, but had a very, very rich neighbor, whose house is a beautiful and gigantic palace, with immense extensions of land and unimaginable treasures. Whoever lives in the little house respects and admires his neighbor; it doesn’t bother him that the other is immensely richer than him; he is happy in his little house, but he has decided to improve it; he is going to paint it, fix it and furnish it better, with effort, of course, but he is sure it will be worth it. All good up to there. Until the rich neighbor decides that his poor neighbor does not have the right to fix up his house, he does not have the right to buy other furniture or paint the walls. The rich neighbor has decided that he not only owns his palace, but can also give orders in the small house of his poor neighbor. And the order is that everything has to continue badly, as it was before. Arrangements are not authorized. The poor neighbor should not oppose his rich neighbor; he should not envy him, he should not aspire to have what the rich neighbor has, he should not pretend that he will give orders to his palace or demand that he change the marble from his room. But the poor neighbor should at least have the right to clean HIS house, patch and paint HIS walls, change HIS furniture, plant flowers in HIS GARDEN and change HIS roof for one that doesn’t leak and covers him from the rain. That cannot bother the rich neighbor, who cannot demand that he put back the old furniture, cut the flowers, strip the walls, remove the new roof (which is also working for him), to put back the roof that was before, with the aggravating circumstance that that leaky roof never worked.

The rich neighbor has no authority to demand that his poor neighbor return to the past. In the first place, because he would have no reason to pretend to rule in someone else’s house. Second, because this poor neighbor already tried to follow orders and could not have done worse. And thirdly, because what he is doing IS WORKING for the first time. Why should his neighbor force him to go back to how he was before? For what purpose? To achieve what? Shouldn’t he be glad that his poor neighbor is doing a little better than before? That is why I say that freedom is something that we still fight for in our country, El Salvador. Because although on paper we are free, sovereign and independent, we will not really be until the powerful understand that we want to be their friends, that we admire them, that we respect them, that our doors are wide open to trade, so that they visit us, to build the best possible relationships, but what they can’t do is come to command in our house. And not only because it is ours, but because it would not make sense to undo what we are achieving: In a very short time, El Salvador has gone from being LITERALLY the MOST DANGEROUS country IN THE WORLD, to being on the way to being the SAFEST country IN AMERICA. We went from being a country unknown to many and those who knew it, knew it because of the gangs, because of the dead, because of the violence, because of the war. We went from that to being a country known for its beaches, for surfing, for its volcanoes, for its financial freedom, for its good government and for having put an end to organized crime. And those achievements, which are just beginning and have been achieved in a very short time, are immense for us. And we have the right to protect them and continue on the path of our development.

That’s why I said that freedom is something we still fight for. Because we still need recognition of our right to be free. To be truly independent. I wanted to use this podium to say these words, because perhaps they will not only resonate in my country, El Salvador, but also in other peoples of the world, who like mine, want to build their own path, with freedom. Some will be able to do it before, others later; for some it will be easier, for others more difficult. But it will be faster if powerful countries help us, instead of condemning us. And if they don’t want to help us, at least they shouldn’t get in the way. Each people should find their own way. And each people will find friends in the search for that path. To these countries, I humbly offer the friendship of this small country, the smallest in America, the country of surfing, volcanoes and pupusas. The country that is still fighting for its freedom, but is about to achieve it. 3 years ago, I was here, on this very podium at the United Nations. At that time, I told you that this format was already obsolete. Now, 3 years later, it is even more so. But perhaps it will still be of some use; perhaps it will serve, among many other things, for this representative of this small country, the smallest in the American continent, to humbly remind you that these United Nations were not created to divide, to destroy or to submit; but to relate to each other, to work together, to build a better community of countries and to seek solutions to the world’s problems; but with absolute respect for the sovereignty, independence and self-determination of each country and in the way that the Charter of the United Nations itself says, in the First Principle of how this Organization would be: “The Organization is based on the principle of equality sovereign of all its Members.” And as one of the main purposes for which this Organization was founded says: “To promote friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and the self-determination of peoples.”

Perhaps the change from the unipolar world to a multipolar world that is talked about so much, would be better if, instead of going from one superpower to several superpowers, we better go to a world where each people is truly free to build their own path and where in this community of nations, let us all contribute, the big ones and the small ones, from our experiences and our capacities, to solve the problems of humanity. Nobody could be against that, but as with Freedom, it is easy to say it; the difficult thing is that it is real. I came here, to stand on this podium, in a format I no longer believe in, to say something that most likely won’t change the way powerful countries see each other anyway. But maybe it will change the way we developing countries see ourselves. If after these few words, I have achieved that, at least with a handful of individuals, who will see themselves with respect and know that they are capable of building their own path, then it was worth coming here, to speak to this obsolete format. And who knows? Perhaps, over time, other nations, other peoples, will also decide to fight for their Freedom. And then the United Nations will have become relevant again, at least for this humble servant. Thank you very much. And may God bless all the nations of the world.

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October 7, 2022
Finca Solana
Corozal Town