El Salvador’s Naval Force confiscated a semi-submersible nearly 1,000 meters off the coast, in which three Colombians were traveling and which contained around 1.2 tons of cocaine valued at $30 million. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele reported the seizure via his Twitter account and tagged Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro. The operation took place 963 kilometers from the coast, making this the farthest seizure in El Salvador’s history.
This latest incident was the latest in a series of disagreements between the two Latin American presidents. Earlier this month, Petro questioned Bukele’s prison and mass detention policy and called the Terrorism Confinement Center a “concentration camp.”
Bukele responded via Twitter and stated that “results outweigh rhetoric.” The two men then had a new clash on social media when the New York District Attorney’s Office learned that two Bukele officials had met with members of a criminal organization to agree to reduce the number of homicides in exchange for benefits for the prisoners. Petro criticized the situation, and Bukele accused him of making deals under the table.
These disagreements reflect the political tensions between the two countries and demonstrate the difficulty of maintaining international relations in a region with high crime and drug trafficking. However, the seizure of the semi-submersible shows the determination of the Salvadoran government in the fight against drug trafficking.