Bukele Snubs UN General Assembly, Calls It “Pointless, A Circus of Hypocrisy” — El Salvador’s Firebrand President Shares Old Speech Instead

In a move that sent shockwaves through diplomatic circles, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has boycotted this year’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), dismissing the annual gathering of world leaders as “pointless” and “a waste of time.”

Instead of traveling to New York as he has done since assuming office in 2019, the Salvadoran leader took to social media, posting a video of his 2024 UNGA address and telling his millions of followers:

> “I skipped the United Nations General Assembly this time. It felt pointless this year. But you can always watch last year’s speech if you feel like wasting time the way I did.”

The two-minute video clip, now trending online, features Bukele delivering a fiery rebuke of the so-called “free world,” warning of its steady decline into chaos and repression.

“Today, the free world is no longer free,” he declared. “Once a nation abandons the principles that make it free, it is only a matter of time before it loses its freedom completely.”

Bukele painted a bleak picture of urban decay in advanced economies, from everyday goods locked behind glass in supermarkets to city streets surrendered to gangs, homelessness, and drugs. He accused powerful governments of weaponizing social media censorship to stifle dissent, warning that liberty itself is under siege.

Bukele’s absence from this year’s UNGA underscores his increasingly combative posture toward international institutions, human rights organizations, and critics abroad.

Since declaring a nationwide “state of exception” in 2022, his government has carried out a sweeping anti-gang crackdown, detaining more than 89,000 people without warrants. The policy has driven El Salvador’s homicide rate to historic lows, transforming the once violence-plagued nation into one of Latin America’s safest.

But human rights groups have accused his administration of mass abuses, arbitrary arrests, and eroding due process. Bukele, however, remains defiant, often mocking critics as defenders of criminals.

Popularity at Home, Controversy Abroad

Despite the international backlash, Bukele’s iron-fist approach has made him a hero at home. In February 2025, he won reelection with over 80% of the vote, after constitutional reforms pushed through by his party allowed indefinite presidential terms — a move widely seen as cementing his grip on power.

The Salvadoran strongman has also found unlikely allies abroad. Former U.S. President Donald Trump, in his own UNGA address, praised El Salvador’s war on gangs as a model for tackling urban violence. Bukele responded with gratitude, citing deepening cooperation on migration control and organized crime.

Yet to his detractors, Bukele’s latest snub of the UNGA signals not just disdain for global diplomacy but also the emergence of a leader determined to chart his own course — even if it means standing alone.

“Why waste time in a room full of hypocrisy?” one of his supporters quipped on X, echoing the sentiment of Bukele’s viral post.

As the world debates the relevance of multilateral platforms in an era of rising nationalism, Nayib Bukele’s boycott has thrown yet another stone into the glass house of global diplomacy — and the cracks are beginning to show.