Hes the youngest leader in latin america at 38 years old the president of el salvador naive with caylee comfortably won the general election in february with caley enjoys a nearly 90 percent Approval Rating but there are challenges ahead with one of the highest murder rates in the world perhaps the main challenge for central americas smallest country is gang related violence and slow growth was kept else salvatores social and Economic Development stagnant corruption cost the government millions of dollars and ever since the 12 year civil war ended in 1992 hundreds of thousands of salvadorians have been fleeing the country every year seeking a safe place to live and better opportunities but president bush seems determined to turn things around with just a few months in office hes traveled extensively from north america to the a ship pacific and to the middle east in mexico he secured investments on social programs that aim to reduce migration to north america in china he signed deals that will improve roads in facilities across el salvador and in katsav to caylee look for opportunities in the Energy Sector and attended meetings with other World Leaders at the doha forum thats where we caught up with him the president of el salvador naive to kelly talks to aljazeera. Naive ok the president. Thank you for talking to aljazeera you took up your job on the 1st of june so youve just done over 6 months can i ask you about the state of your country and given the level of violence there still is are you dealing with the crisis yes we have were dealing with a lot of crisis. But the fact is that we have has changed a lot in the in the last 6 months for example crime which is probably the worst crisis we have lower the crime by 60 percent homicide rate has dropped by 60 percent and weve been fighting corruption very very strongly and theres a lot of hope in the country and its not something of course i would say that there is a lot of hope in the country but the pain that every poll gives is 909193 percent Approval Ratings so the only way is down now. Yes of course but defied the 9 out of 10 in a country where there was we had a still worth 30 years ago so its a country that is used to being polarized and defined that we had a party that was the radical right and the very leftist party and there was a very polarized you know you had it all true and nationalism against. Communism and marxism and now you have 90 percent of the country going to a little more than 90 percent of the country thats not on the right and the left but is thinking forward and wanted to do wanted to have a better country and wanted to i think a lot of things have changed staying with those poll ratings clearly some of it is about you being a brand new type of leader the youngest in latin america new Political Party some would make the accusation that with you what theyre getting is style chom is the proof yet theres substance with you as well well i was i was mayor of a small town before i was the mayor of the capital and then i was mayor of the capital before i was president so people know my know most of. Governing its not that im and i just show up and say ok i want to be president and then people voted for me let me talk about 2 of the biggest problems that youre facing and they are the endemic corruption gangs lets start with the corruption you had a slogan in your election theres enough money when no one steals what are you going to do about the corruption youve already said youre going to set up a new International Body explain how thats going to work were a to set it up its already we already signed the agreement with the organization of american states we have some agreements in the United Nations the offices are already open the really they are very name a commission or. They have already signed. Agreements with us with the executive branch with the turn in general there they are very its already set up and its going to start investigating cases soon and i think its not its not only the commission but its also the government i mean people have people there is working with us we have a minister of public works 29 years old we have a half hour a camera room and so you say its going to start and when will it start proper investigations do you think youre going to start judicial action cases thats going to take probably 6 months to a year but its very ready the fact that the commission is already there that their way is his name a commissioner and that the offices are open that they are signing the agreement that they are hiring the people that they are starting to look at the cases just that fact has a very as a really pride in a lot of corrupt corrupt officials and if they knew at least the top officials the ministers the people there knew there was no background of corruption there are mostly young mostly mostly women i think theres theres a lot of change from the top down some some someone said that you have corruption you have to go the stairs they have to with the broom you have to go from the top down for the bottom up so in this case we have been through tech in their own career. From the from the top down by putting ministers and top officials and and heads of the agencies in and departments people that are not corrupt and this new commission is going to investigate everybody is willing comes to the top of the staff theyll be able to look anywhere and anyone in the country in Previous Administrations people who let them your Administration Anyone in your administration including years of course theres the man the commission has is not if not it will be like you know this just in the show its a no its a real commission is bad by International Multilateral organ the organizations i mean it is not is not a joke is something that is very very serious and it has it has a 90 percent Approval Rating as well the commission so i think its going to work very well i think its going to be an example for the region and for other countries in the world im i have the same corruption problems like the whole of that in the merc your other huge problem is the gangs you are a country that is not technically at war but you have levels of violence that look like countries the drug war how are you going to retaliate gangs well we have lowered crime by 60 percent we have dropped by 60 percent other crimes have been lowered by similar numbers 405060 percent other types of crime Violent Crimes october was the safest month since since the war as a civil war so one of the difficulties you redeploying well several 1st we send the army to the streets thats probably not very popular internationally but it was it was it was needed in our country we changed the strategy by focusing i think i mean we have a 21000 square kilometer a country which is quite small but at the same time. We have a police force thats not enough to cover the whole country so we did was that wed. Focused the police risk we made a map we call it a heat map where we have most of the Violent Crimes because there are committed in the most populous areas so we concentrated the police force and the armed forces in those areas where we have the most most crimes we close communications in jails in the jails he had a wife wife Cell Phones Computers everything and they were ordering killings from the jails and so they were the headquarters of the. Yes we were paying for their headquarters now we of course were paying for their food and their and their you know where the the dirt learning and other things but not for their headquarters because they have no communication no illegal communication. Anymore were looking at the structures who saw parade whos commanding the structures we make a map we take out the the the main pieces of the puzzle and then theyre going to stops working they didnt know how to have to manage how to control so the gangs are already there they dont know how to. How to regroup actually that gives is a huge window and biased time so we can revamp everything and we fight were fighting crime better than before we were building a 32000000 forensic lab we didnt begin to have a forensic lab before its sounds ridiculous but we didnt have a friend who also was someone came in killed someone. And you know having a witness. Then its gone i mean the you cannot go to the killer and now in any year from now when there forensic gravest done we could we could find the killer with d. N. A. If he leaves a hair piece of skin or or his fingerprints we will have a one of the finest forensic labs in whole or in the murray in there in the summer if you look back just recently 2015 the murder rate in your country was 103 People Killed for every 100000 people thats higher than countries actually at war like libya somalia or ukraine now its come down a bit i take that. Come down 85 percent from that number but can i ask you to paint a picture for us for people around the world who have not been to el salvador what that means for ordinary people how do these gangs operate and how does it affect ordinary peoples lives 1st its a crisis a huge crisis you have to deal with it they have to take into consideration several things 1st the number has gone down for 85 percent 60 since with took office. For one so the number of the crisis is 8 times smaller. The other is that most of the killings are between again between gangs so most of their killings are because of fighting for territory and this gang wants this territory or a piece of it and then theres a guy who wants to defend it so the most of the killings are because gangs gang members crossing to other gang members target so you have to lower that number 15 percent you have to low you have to cut it in half so then the population is afraid of course but its afraid. Of a 7 percent of what you have there because that type of the common citizen to go in or work or bus to school or walking in the street youve talked about your military response your policing response the tough approach that youre going to take with intelligence and technology but surely does another side to this particularly as the gangs some of them involve children there are women who are part of the gang culture what are you going to do about trying to read integrate these people into normal society its obvious that its a social problem and its obvious that policing in armed forces and Technology Even technology in forensics and even science its on the lake if somebody has a tumor a brain tumor and he goes to the doctor and the doctor says ok im going to prescribe some medication for the pain right and but theres not a cure of course i mean hes not going to get a cure of the tumor by taking a lot of pain medication. Hes going to get cured with radiotherapy or chemotherapy or with an operation right not with pain were not with pain killers but the fact that we need pain killers because the pain was too was too high we had to lower those numbers to do so what are you going to do with these x. Counting members because isnt there a danger yes some of them will be in prison for a long time because theyve committed no serious crimes but when they come out well many of them face pariah status because theyd be marked for life many of them they have tattoos from head to toe well theres of course theres not a official census because nobody will go insane and we think that we have around 70000 gang members. Thats one percent of a polish and they make a lot of one percent is a lot i mean i never it sounds like like a little bit one percent of if and when the wrong criminal organization here. But most of them their kids most of them 12 year old 13 year olds they dont they dont go around and kill people theyre just kids that they used to go and collect distortion money or go go to the corner and tell if the police is coming most of this good or very easy to to reincorporate to society because theyre not i mean theyre not criminals just helping her theyre probably their siblings or their friends in the community so this this type of a gang member which is 12 or 13 year old 14 year old theyre easier to to. To reincorporate them into society then you have the dangerous kind of gang member which is the one who kills in rapes in sort of the sorts of things. That one has to go to jail and has to pay for the for what theyve done and those are the gang members that you hear u. S. Politicians talking about team members for example they talk about they are constantly including President Trump saying theres a real danger of these gang members coming into the United States is one of the main arguments against immigration coming from the south but in fact it seems to me the evidence is just absolutely reverse here so many of these people fleeing violence so what do you say to those u. S. Politicians not only that but the fact that mr a teen was created in the United States i mean it was not created you know some other it was we imported that problem from the United States with the pretensions the problem is the most of the people fled our country in the civil war so they wasnt trying to get it wrong to tell him hes got it wrong well i dont want to i dont want to get out of breath and run but the fact was our people they just went to the United States scaping from the civil war a huge civil war there was that was a reflection of the fight between the west and the east when they were fighting an army funded by the United States against their will or funded by the soviet union so. We. Well you knew that and the most 13 gay existed in the United States we didnt have any members of other but depredations they started to and they said ok were going to send the criminals right were going to send away the criminals but the fact is that anyway the criminals sound very nice and the problem is whos getting the criminals right so theyre starting sending back gang gang leaders from the United States. And they started creating branches of the gang that was created in the United States right now. Is not is now the only country that has m. S. 13 theres a message in there there is a mess 13 in the us in milan in italy in the United States in the sandal as in San Francisco in virginia so the fact is that. It is not all these other areas for example 190 percent of the members are who are its an International Criminal organization that was there is a very unsophisticated it is mostly made up of young people is a social problem that is reflected on a criminal problem and it is starting in the United States but the United States as a result of this in the trumpet ministration have mentioned taking action against your country and others now they backed down a little bit but some of the foreign assistance they sent you a country they were going to kick out 200000 of your citizens in the u. S. They now say they can stay until january 2021 extended for one year what do you say to the u. S. About these measures. Although most of those measures have been reversed are ready for example put on hold no no no actually for example the aid they turned about but. We got it back. The people there was supposed to be expelled from the country and very for next year i mean in less than a month they just extended that a year and 2 years or so. Well there are so and the and the previous extensions of the t. P. S. Were 18 months so actually were getting a larger extension now that weve got before with the previews ministrations is mostly the language of this change because right now they dont call in instantiation they said were extending the work permits and their right of those people to stay here but were in that calling an extension of the emperor protection status of those people have been living for many years in the us but they are still important to your economy because they send money home and thats about a 3rd of your g. D. P. Well the most important thing is that theyre human beings and there is over there as in the here we have to take care of them 200000 people now they have 200000 kids that are american citizens u. S. Citizens so what we told the ministration of the u. S. Administration the trump of this race and we told them. Its our problem that 2 100000 southerners but its your problem that 200000 u. S. Citizens who are under age the going to send them back to work and we send them back to their country their country the United States they were born here they dont they didnt even know us i was in there never been there so if youre a problem as weve talked about one superpower i want to ask you about another rising power in the world and that is china and you recently came back from a visit in china the Previous Administration 18 months ago switched from diplomatic recognition of taiwan to recognition of beijing you before you took up your post was somewhat critical of china you said china medals in democracy your most recent comments though that youre going to get a big investment you say china is going to provide a gigantic norm refundable cooperation can i work out where you stand on china are you sticking with beijing or might you switch back to recognizing taiwan has a decision been made the decision has been made you can not in. Nor china and when china is the 2nd largest economic superpower. Its you dont have to take investments from them and im going to quote your own words china is not playing by the rules they go into projects leaving countries to huge loans which they use theres no leverage but you stand by that and you werent slapped it will happen to know because we have a loan and anything there is not coming to do investments in your country will they want something in return the recognition of them and to make a decision and then we went to stay with with recognizing china which is actually i mean what what what was the option i mean you can not only 1315 countries in the world dont recognize china as a country and it is even if you are ridiculous i mean you cannot not recognize china as a country you believe and china but place a little bit of a negative role sometimes in World Affairs as well as within its own borders the Current Situation in hong kong or the detention of a 1000000 weak is i think any we can you can tell me any huge country and you can pick up 4 or 5 things that we may not be. Not agree with if you say russia for example you say france or you say the United Kingdom more in their states or i mean brazil you want to talk about the brics india i mean you can pick any country and tell me what do you think about the Nuclear Proliferation of india for example you know i dont want to get at odds with any superpower i just i just want to i just want the best thing for our country thats thats magic Foreign Policy you know one of the sub there is not a player in the world that. Switch things in the planetary scale. But we might do the best thing for our country so i mean for us Foreign Policy is not a matter of changing the world this it is. Is but more of what how can we insert our country in this huge economy so we can help our people our and in terms of your region can i ask you about one Important Development in your Foreign Policy and that sort of regard to venezuela you there have kicked out the diplomats representing Nicolas Maduro and instead inviting in. From his rival one. He said he was the chips but president almost a year ago and yet we have stalemate the most recent talks of barbados broken down do you see any positive moves to to to resolving this humanitarian crisis or you just said its a humanitarian crisis and the other thing is that its a matter of time i dont know if one way than my succeed but im sure my daughter cannot stay in power for long i mean people are getting salaries of 2 or 3 or 4. 00 a month working 8 hours a day to get 4. 00 a month you cannot buy. You can buy a piece of bread and some mags with a month salary. So he can stay and play he can stay in power for long now you would say why do you meddle into venice well and that well its different because. Youre talking about our region for her 1st 2nd bennett the venice who other. Diplomats were meddling into our politics back in the suburbs or financing our former the former of the party for former government so of course i mean we kicked them out because it was the right thing to do 1st but also because they were meddling into our politics i think you have a dream you have a just do you think again this is magic approach to Foreign Relations you have a very interesting perspective on this because you were earlier in your career a representative of a left leaning party youve gone on a political journey you now have more capitalist outlook it seems to me in the pasta looking back in your views of venezuela was there a time when you would madhu go chobits for example well there is something there are some things you had to in my or above you were chose but. I think you were chavis was a creation of their of the venezuelan right so if you see some of the things hes done in the beginning it was very interesting now with time it started evolving into something very different a lot of corruption a lot of a lot of. Facials having billions of dollars overseas so then it evolved into something worst and worst and worst and then you know want to associate yourself with i mean. Something sometimes things started a good way but they are in a good way has happened in the cellar as well finally mr president i see a bit of a trend you are 38 years old and there are Young Leaders emerging in different parts of the world new zealand ukraine finland i was in new york in september at the Un General Assembly and you went to the podium and in your speech you pulled out your phone and did a selfie in front of all the dignitaries there and several more people will see this so the listen to my speech what do you think this young generation of leaders bring to the world not just in their communication methods but actual substance is not in the gym and perceived to be young but i think that this new generation has been. Surrounded by Different Things in the world that its totally globalization and into connected all of these new commerce even though i didnt know any of them but they share. What they were surrounded worth when the and their upbringing so now theyre being placed in positions of power. I dont know if new going to be good or bad but a bad theyre going to be different so theres going to change the world is going to change the world and the world is going to change anyways even if with the way the wanted to change so the people are going to ask for changes and the new leaders are going to are able to respond to this aspirations that the people have now are going to be the new World Leaders and those World Leaders are going to change the world president naive who clearly of el salvador thank you very much for talking to us as you know for difficult. On counting the cost especially on investing in the burgeoning rockets from the doha for a bright kid. How Foreign Direct Investment is reshaping the Global Economy that means for the future with antiglobalization a populist sense of. Counting the cost on aljazeera what are you testing about how does this increase whether online life face minstrelsy directly translated slavery or if you join us on set this is an attack on Academic Freedom and on our ability to do research and teach freely this is a dialogue myanmar is not making it very welcoming for people to come back everyone has a voice Climate Change is real d the discussion is for real and im here to talk about the solutions on aljazeera i also see this is the opportunity to understand in a very different way where there before we dont leave our. Hello im Maryanne Demasi in on then with a quick roundup of the headlines this hour thousands of indians have defied a ban on demonstrations and rallied against a controversial citizenship law Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has himself held a rally again denying that the law excludes muslims Sabina Shasta reports. 7 its the greatest challenge indias Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has faced since he came to power 5 years ago dozens of people have been killed during protest against a citizenship law which many think discriminates against muslims addressing thousands of his supporters at an election rally in new delhi modi blamed the opposition for stoking the protests were going to find out is the big. Problems since the slow has been passed some Political Parties have been spreading rumors these people are misleading the public they are inciting the public you look for part of our i want to ask those who are pelted stones and sticks getting people to enjoy police trying to do the us what are you hoping to achieve the police is no runs in a me. The citizenship Amendment Act makes it easier for migrants from afghanistan bangladesh and pakistan who arent muslim to become indian citizens critics say the law could lead to many muslims losing their citizenship. Broader storm. Staging protests is a right they should not be violent so i oppose that whatever the police are doing i request them not to do it they should also listen we are also indians like you we are also humans. As