“God willing, our war against corruption will be as successful as our war against the gangs.”

Bukele speaking in Spanish which was translated to English said, “You can see that everyone here is from the executive branch. From the executive branch that I oversee, except for one person- the Attorney General. He’s not part of the executive branch, but he’s here for a simple reason.

“I want to ask him publicly to investigate everyone sitting here. Retroactively and into the future. I imagine that there should be no problem with that.

“Someone once asked me if I am afraid of death. I said, of course, nobody wants to die. I don’t want to die. But I know that I’ll die someday, like anyone else, death is the one thing we can’t escape.”

Bukele, who has been in power since 2019, said he was afraid of “leaving a bad legacy”.

“There are some presidents, some in prison and some on the run, they are remembered as criminals. That’s not how I want to be remembered,” he said.

He emphasised that he refrains from stealing because he refuses to be remembered as a corrupt leader.

Bukele expressed his concern about leaving a negative legacy and cited past presidents who were tainted by association with corruption.

He added, “But for one president, President [Rodrigo] Duarte, people back then used to say the President isn’t a thief, but he surrounded himself with thieves.

“There was a time when he offered hope for the Salvadoran people. But even if it’s true he didn’t steal, he was foolish because he was the people’s hope, he didn’t touch a cent and still stained his legacy by surrounding himself with thieves.

“That won’t happen to me. I won’t be the president who didn’t steal but was surrounded by criminals. I want to be remembered as the president who didn’t steal and didn’t let anyone else steal, either.”