I'm John Batchel with my good colleague, Professor Evan Ellis of the U.S. Army War College

Strategic Studies Institute. He's traveling. He's in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, but we turn

our attention to Salvador, San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, the very popular president, Naïbe Buckele, recently making a most

successful trip to Washington to sit with the president of the United States in the Oval

Office, made remarks these last days that I found immediately witty.

And that is, I'm accustomed to it.

And Buckele is a shrewd younger leader in Latin America.

He's done things such as buy lots of bitcoins when it was not as depressed as it became,

but certainly down from where it is right now, and watch his Bitcoin hoard grow exponentially. He's also recommended using a

semi-active volcano in El Salvador as a source of energy in order to mine more bitcoins. Whether

that happens or not, it's clever. Now, in addition to cleverness, he's showing

himself to be a shrewd regional and maybe geopolitical actor. Evan, all eyes on El Salvador for the

moment. Mr. Buceli came out and told the world, but especially directing his remarks at

Nicholas Maduro, the dictator and illegitimate president of Venezuela.

I'll tell you what, President Maduro.

I've got 252.

I think that was the number of your Trondi Aragua transnational gang in my jails.

I'll send them to you if you return an equal number of political prisoners

that you hold after the suppression of the opposition that won the last race. I believe that

Venezuela holds the most political prisoners in all of Latin America. Now, that was downright clever.

Professor, did Buckele get credit for it in Washington, or was this seen as just snarkiness?

It certainly was a very astute move, and it goes back to the complex maneuvering that

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