“Imbeciles.” That’s how Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele referred to independent journalists in El Salvador after two investigative reports revealed that he and five other family members — including his three brothers, his wife, and his mother — acquired 34 new properties valued at $9 million during his first five years in office.

Bukele made these remarks on Wednesday via his X account (formerly Twitter), one day after the publication of the second of two investigations conducted by the media alliance Redacción Regional, Focos, and Dromómanos. This latest report disclosed that his brother and chief advisor, Karim Bukele, purchased a building in the historic center of San Salvador for $1.3 million just three months after the Legislative Assembly — controlled by the Bukele family — passed a law exempting investors in that area from taxes.

Bukele, who typically avoids interviews and does not respond to journalistic investigations, vented his frustration on X, his preferred social media platform. He posted: “The ‘journalists’ paid by Soros were ordered to attack with alleged cases of corruption. None of their ‘investigations’ can withstand the scrutiny of an accountant. We are not perfect, and I am sure there will be much to criticize and question. But corruption? Don’t be imbeciles.”

Investments in the historic center

The historic center — where the president’s brother has invested — has been one of the Bukeles’ primary focuses since coming to power. Currently undergoing extensive renovations, the central government has evicted thousands of street vendors to attract tourism and hotel investments. Vendors reported that police have displaced them by threatening to imprison them under the state of emergency regime if they refused to leave. This measure — implemented in March 2022 to fulfill Bukele’s promise to dismantle gangs — has effectively allowed authorities to arrest anyone.

Since his tenure as mayor of the capital from 2016 to 2019, Nayib Bukele has been dedicated to rehabilitating the historic center of San Salvador, which had been neglected and uninhabitable for decades. One of his initial strategies involved secretly forging a pact with the MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs, which dominated every block in downtown San Salvador, to remodel parks and open new businesses.

On Wednesday, one day after the investigation was posted, Karim Bukele took to his personal X account to respond with a lengthy message. He argued that if he had possessed privileged information, “the logical thing would have been to buy SEVERAL buildings BEFORE they went up in price due to the interventions.” He added: “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 correct thing to do. I did it under MY NAME,” he emphasized in capital letters.

The following day, Jaime Quintanilla — the lead researcher behind the investigative posts — revealed on his X account that the company Lagencia S.A. de C.V., through which Karim purchased the building in the historic center, had not filed its balance sheets with the public registry, as required by law in El Salvador. Karim’s response on the platform came swiftly: “I’m going to leave you with the task so that you can keep busy marinating in your ‘abomination’ towards us,” he said. He further claimed that he had transferred a “small house that he inherited” in a personal capacity to the company’s name to turn it into a business, similar to what he had done with other properties. Following this publication, Quintanilla received a barrage of offensive comments on X.

The Association of Journalists of El Salvador (APES) has raised an alarm over the situation. “APES calls on the government of President Bukele to stop stigmatizing, threatening, and monitoring journalists whose only mission is to oversee the use and abuse of power in the government,” the organization stated on its official X account. “APES will be attentive to any actions that jeopardize the integrity of journalists and the media alliance that published the investigation,” it added.

Investigations into the Bukele family

The first investigation, published on September 20, revealed that the Bukele family has increased the land they owned twelvefold since coming to power, acquiring 34 new luxury properties and coffee plantations totaling 231 hectares, valued at $9.2 million. These purchases were made in a personal capacity and through family businesses. According to the publication, with the acquisition of the coffee plantations, “the Bukeles entered the select group of 2% of large coffee producers in El Salvador who own more than 100 cultivable acres.”

Among the newly acquired properties is a plot of land with a prime view of Lake Coatepeque, one of El Salvador’s most exclusive tourist destinations, as well as seven coffee plantations, two plots of rural land, and several luxury apartments. The investigation is backed by hundreds of pages, including 74 public deeds and 40 company profiles.

One of the primary questions raised by the investigation into the Bukele family’s land purchases is how at least two of their companies saw exponential growth in their assets. Some of this increase occurred through mortgage loans, where private banks lent them millions of dollars without sufficient capital to back the debt.

Following Karim Bukele’s initial reaction on X, EL PAÍS inquired via the same platform about the dramatic growth of one of his companies, Grupo Bukele S.A. de C.V., which had a capital of just $2,500 in 2019 but soared to $6.8 million by 2023. “That’s the problem with writing from ignorance,” he responded. “When you create a company, you can do so with minimal capital while the project is being developed. […] You then invest in it, increasing the capital. In this case, a piece of land was bought and transferred to that company, followed by the construction of a building on that property, which is how its capital increased,” he explained.

Following his public response, EL PAÍS engaged in a 42-minute phone conversation with Karim Bukele. During the discussion, the president’s brother insisted that the properties were acquired using capital that they already owned and through mortgage loans to companies with minimal capital, securing these loans with collateral from other family-owned companies valued at millions. Notably, the Bukele family also owns the Yamaha franchise in El Salvador, a company that boasted over $8.6 million in assets by 2018.

Throughout the conversation, EL PAÍS repeatedly requested copies of the documents that would substantiate his claims, but Karim Bukele declined to provide them. Furthermore, it remains impossible to access the president’s asset declarations, as the Supreme Court of Justice has deemed them confidential.

Both the president and his brother took to Twitter, asserting that the published investigations would not withstand “the slightest analysis by an accountant.” In response, EL PAÍS proposed a personal meeting between Karim Bukele and one of his accountants to clarify the purchases. However, after the request was made, Karim Bukele ceased responding to messages.

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