Published on
06/03/2026 – 18:35 GMT+1

El Salvador’s Vice-President Félix Ulloa fiercely defended his country’s crackdown on criminal gangs in what he described as “the miracle of Bukele” in an interview with Euronews, saying only the woke and left-wing European media disagree.

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Ulloa, a lawyer by training, is one of the key engineers of an unprecedented state-led operation to eliminate gang violence under Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who has been in power since 2019. The criminality rate in what used to be one of the most dangerous countries in Latin America has collapsed, but critics point to an increasingly authoritarian turn.

“El Salvador is not militarised, and it’s not a police state. You are wrong,” he said on Euronews’ interview programme 12 Minutes With in Brussels, as he prepared to address a conference organised by the European Reformists and Conservatives (ECR) group at the European Parliament. This political family also includes MEPs of Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy.

“Show me one European leader who has Bukele’s popularity. They wish they could get his numbers,” he said while pointing to a newspaper clipping. “None of them, certainly not the ones that have criticised us, can do this. In El Salvador, we are 100% safe.”

El Salvador ended 2024 with a record low 114 homicides compared to 6,656 killings in 2015 in violent shootings among gangs or clashes with security forces. In 2022, a wave of violence saw 62 people killed in a single day by gangs. As a result, Bukele was granted emergency powers and the “state of exception” has remained in place since.

So far, there is little indication that Bukele will lift it even as crime declines and human rights activists warn of an erosion of the constitution and abuse of power. Ulloa pushed back, saying, “democracy is about the people, and the people feel safe.”

But this approach is not without flaws.

Since 2022, as Bukele cracked down on gangs, more than 83,000 people have been arrested in El Salvador. A mega prison known as CECOT, or Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo in Spanish, was inaugurated in 2023 and has become the symbol of the country’s transformation. Pictures have emerged of packed cells and inmates piling on to each other in small confinement areas serving as “warning”, according to Ulloa.

“I understand that it can shock (Europeans), but there is a subliminal message. Before, these guys would pose and make gestures, like celebrating. Now, when you see those pictures, it’s clear you don’t want to end up there,” he told Euronews.

Yet, some of the people held in prison should not even be there, according to human rights groups, who point to arbitrary arrests, detentions without due process and sentences handed without evidence of wrongdoing.

“There can be some mistakes that are made. You don’t make mistakes here? They don’t make mistakes in France. In Spain?” he said. “And we have liberated some 8,000.”

Bukele was re-elected president of El Salvador in 2024 with a landslide majority close to 85% of the vote and has floated an unlimited term after the constitution was amended last year. Asked if that represented an erosion of democratic standards, Ulloa told Euronews, “absolutely not…. demos means the people. And if they want him…”

After Donald Trump fired Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on Thursday, Jimmy Kimmel was having the last laugh. On Thursday night’s edition of “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” the late night host poked some fun at the embattled Noem, who was finally let go after several scandals.

That included her claim that Trump approved her $220 million border security advertising campaign that was seen as self-promotional; a multi-million-dollar jet fleet paid for by border funds; her relationship with top aide Corey Lewandowski; and how she falsely called Alex Pretti, the Minnesota man killed by ICE agents, was a “domestic terrorist.”

In his opening monologue, Kimmel pointed out that this felt like the latest installment of a Trump scripted TV show — and in this case, a “Game of Thrones” moment.

“Today – we had a red wedding on that TV show,” he said. “A shocking elimination on the ‘Celebrity Appresident,’ as Trump finally fired a member of his cabinet. It’s the first one of his second term.”

Kimmel noted that the now-former Secretary of Homeland Security was let go after “two disastrous hearings in the House and Senate” and was now, as Trump explained, “‘…moving to be Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas, our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere.’”

What, exactly, is that? “I think I speak for all of us when I say, we wish Kristi luck in her brand-new, completely made-up job,” Kimmel quipped. “It’s interesting – Trump was said to be particularly unhappy with Noem’s testimony claiming that he signed off on a $220 million ad campaign that featured her in commercials wearing different outfits, rounding up immigrants and riding a horse.

“Trump claims he didn’t know anything about it. Even though we all knew everything about it. But you know him, he doesn’t watch much television.”

Kimmel knows that’s not true, and directly addressed him: “Hi, President Trump, how are ya!”

Kimmel also pointed out that not long before she got the boot, Noem and the DHS had been pushing back against criticism of those commericials, calling them “the most successful ad campaign in U.S. history.”

Asked the host: “Even more than ‘Where’s the Beef?’ More than ‘Whazzzzup!’? I don’t know – if that’s true, that’s very impressive. You know, the funniest thing would be if they deport her to El Salvador.”

Kimmel then added that Trump’s replacement for Noem was Oklahoma senator Markwayne Mullin — a former MMA fighter and a plumber.

“According to White House staffers, Trump ‘loves watching him on TV,’” Kimmel said. “I agree. I love watching him on TV too… in the same way I loved watching Honey Boo Boo on TV.”

Also in the monologue, Kimmel noted that according to polls, a majority of Americans are not in favor of the war on Iran, and that “a majority of Americans think Trump is making the U.S. less safe. But that is according to a poll from those radical left-wing lunatics at Fox News.”

And he also noted that of the more than 47,000 documents “that mysteriously vanished from the government’s website, some of these missing files contain disturbing allegations against a person who for legal reasons I can’t say his name, but he’s currently the President.” Those missing files have finally been published — and include a transcript of the accuser’s interviews.

As Kimmel noted: “Can you imagine if the DOJ had been holding FBI interviews with a woman who claimed that Joe Biden sexually assaulted her when she was a young teenager? It would be rage boner-palooza at Fox News.”

Watch the monologue here:

An Iranian ship offloaded more than 200 members of its crew to Sri Lanka on Friday after suffering an engine failure at sea, just days after a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship in an Indian Ocean torpedo attack. 

The IRIS Bushehr, described in previous Iranian media reports as a navy logistics ship, is being brought first to the port of Colombo, according to Sri Lanka navy spokesman Cmdr. Buddhika Sampath. Sailors are being taken to a naval base in Welisara following medical exams and immigration procedures. 

“We have to understand that this is not an ordinary situation,” Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said Thursday. “It’s a request by a ship belonging to one party to enter into our port. We have to consider that according to the international treaties and conventions.” 

Dissanayake added that authorities decided to take control of the IRIS Bushehr following discussions with Iranian officials and the ship’s captain, after one of its engines failed. He said some crew members would remain on board to help the Sri Lankan navy later navigate the vessel to Trincomalee on the island’s northeast coast, about 165 miles from Colombo.

The moves come after the U.S. sank the Iranian warship IRIS Dena off Sri Lanka’s coast on Wednesday.  

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said it was “the first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II.” 

The Indian navy said Thursday that it had initiated search and rescue operations after receiving a distress signal from the Dena, deploying two aircraft along with a sailing training vessel. By the time the response was launched, the Sri Lankan navy had already started its own rescue efforts, it said.

The Sri Lankan navy rescued 32 sailors and recovered 87 bodies after the attack, according to The Associated Press. 

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Thursday that the U.S. will “bitterly regret” striking and sinking that ship. 

“The U.S. has perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran’s shores,” Araqchi wrote on X. “Frigate Dena, a guest of India’s Navy carrying almost 130 sailors, was struck in international waters without warning.”

US ‘WINNING DECISIVELY’ AGAINST IRAN, WILL ACHIEVE ‘COMPLETE CONTROL’ OF AIRSPACE WITHIN DAYS, HEGSETH SAYS

“Mark my words: The U.S. will come to bitterly regret precedent it has set,” he added. 

Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday that the Iranian vessel was “effectively neutralized” in a Navy “fast attack” using a single Mark 48 torpedo.

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He added that the U.S. Navy achieved “immediate effect, sending the warship to the bottom of the sea.” 

Fox News’ Stephen Sorace, Landon Mion and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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