he's the youngest leader in latin america at 38 years old the president of el salvador naive 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 america's smallest country is gang related violence and slow growth as cattle salvatore's 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 he's 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 and facilities across el salvador and catch up with caylee look for opportunities in the energy sector and attended meetings with other world leaders at the doha forum that's where we caught up with him the president of el salvador naive talks to al-jazeera.

will clearly president of el salvador thank you for talking to al-jazeera you took up your job on the 1st of june so you've 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 a crisis yes we have we're 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 we've been fighting corruption very very strongly and there's a lot of hope in the country and it's not something of course i would say that there is a lot of hope in the country by the fact that every poll gives is 909193 percent approval ratings so the only weighs down now sure 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 it's

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 alter 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 that's 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 they're getting is style chom is the proof yet there's substance with you as well well i was i was mayor of a small town before i was

a mayor of the capital and then i was mayor of the capital before i was president so people know me know most of. of governing is not that i'm 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 you're facing and they are the endemic corruption the gangs let's start with the corruption you had a slogan in your election there's enough money when no one steals what are you gonna do about the corruption you've already said you're going to set up a new international body explain how that's going to work we're a to set it up it's 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 in the i'm a commissioner. they have already signed. agreements with us with the executive branch with the attorney general there they are very it's already set up and it's going to start investigating cases soon and i think it's not it's not only the

commission but it's also the government i mean people are people there is working with us we have a minister of public works 29 years old we have a half hour a camera the room and so you say it's going to start and when will it start proper investigations do you think you're going to start judicial action cases that's going to take probably 6 months to a year but it's very ready the fact that the commission is already there that their way is his name a commissioner 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 in new there have no background of corruption there are mostly young mostly mostly women i think there's there's a lot of change from the top down some some someone said that you have for 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 and then corrupt. 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 they'll be able to look anywhere and anyone in the country and previous administrations people who lead them your administration anyone in your administration including years of course there's the man the commission has is not if not it will be like you know this just another show it's a no it's a real commission is bad by international multilateral organ that we're going to say 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 it's going to work

very well i think it's going to be an example for the region and for other countries in the world i'm 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 stories you redeploying well several 1st we send the army to the streets that's 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 that's not enough to cover the whole country so we did was they read . focused the police risk we made a map. we call it a heat map 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 we're looking at the structures who saw parade who's commanding the structures we make a map we take out the. the main pieces of the puzzle

and then they're going to stops working they didn't know how to have to manage how to control so the gangs are already they don't know how to. how to regroup actually that gives is a huge window and biased time so we can revamp everything and we fight we are fighting crime better than before we were building a 32000000 forensic lab we didn't begin to have a forensic lab before it's sounds ridiculous but we didn't have a friend who also was someone came in killed someone. and you know having a witness. then it's gone i mean the you cannot go to the killer and now in any year from now when their 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 are we will have a one of the finest forensic labs in whole or in america 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 that's higher than countries actually at war like libya somalia or ukraine now it's 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 people's lives 1st it's a crisis a huge crisis you have there 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 the killings are because of fighting for territory this gang wants this territory or

a piece of it and then there's 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 of the low enough to cut it in half so then the population is afraid of course but it's afraid. of a 7 percent of what you have there because that's what type of the common citizen they go in or work or bus to school or walking in the street you've talked about your military response your policing response the tough approach that you're 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 it's obvious that it's a social problem and it's obvious that policing in armed forces and technology

even technology in forensics and even science it's on the lake if somebody has a tumor a brain tumor and he goes to the doctor and the doctor says ok i'm going to prescribe some medication for the pain right and but there's not a cure of course i mean is that going to get cured of the tumor by taking a lot of pain medication. he's going to get cured of a tumour with radiotherapy or chemotherapy or with an operation right not with pain but 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 isn't there a danger yes some of them will be in prison for a long time because they've committed no serious crimes but when they come out well many of them face pariah status because they'd be marked for life many of them they have tattoos from head to toe. well there's of course there's not

a racial census because nobody will go insane and we think that we have around 70000 gang members. that's one percent of the police they make a lot of one percent is a lot i mean i never it sounds like like a little bit one percent of the wrong criminal organization here. but most of them their kids most of them 12 year old 13 year olds they don't they don't go around and kill people they're 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 they're not i mean they're not criminals just helping or they're probably their siblings or their friends in the community so this this type of gang member which is 12 or 13 year old 14 year old they're 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 do all sort of sorts of things. that one has to go to jail and has to pay for the for where what they've done and those are the gang members that you hear u.s. politicians talking about team members for example they talk about and they are constantly including president trump saying there's 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 absolute reverse 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 routine was created in the united states i mean it was not created it was we imported that problem from the united states with the pretty asians the problem is the most of the people fled our country in the civil war so they wasn't trying to get it wrong to tell him he's got

it wrong well i don't want to i don't want to get out of personal drama but the fact was they were 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 are funded by the soviet union so you know sober we only knew that and the mr thing existed in the united states we didn't have any members of other but with their politicians they started to and they said ok we're going to send the criminals right we're going to send away the criminals but the fact is that anyway the criminal sound very nice but the problem is who's getting the criminals right so they're 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 a master thena there's a message there there is a mess 13 in the us in milan in italy. in the united states in the sandal is in san

francisco in virginia so the fact is that. and in all these other islands for example 190 percent of the members are. it's 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 started 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 then 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 us about these measures. although most of those measures have been reversed

or 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 for several or so and the and the previous extensions of the t.p.s. were 18 months so actually we're getting a larger extension now than what we've got we've got before with the previous administrations is mostly the language of this change because right now they don't call and instead they say we're extending the work permits and their right of those people to stay here but we're not calling an extension of them prairie protection status of those people who've been living for many years in the us but they are still important to your economy because they send money home and that's about a 3rd of your g.d.p. well the most important thing is that they're human beings and they're still. there

is 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 the u.s. administration the trump in this region we told them. it's our problem that 2 100000 southerners but it's 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 don't they didn't even know us i was in there never been there so if you're a problem as we've 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 you're 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 decisions have been made you cannot ignore china and then china is the 2nd largest a canonical superpower. it's you don't have to take investments from them and i'm going to quote your own words china is not playing by the rules they go into projects leaving countries the huge loans which they use there's no leverage but you stand by that and you worried it will happen to know because we have a loan then anything there is when they come into the 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 we're recognizing china which is actually i mean what what what was the option. i mean you can not only 1315 countries in the

world don't recognise china as a country and it's even if you are ridiculous and you cannot not recognize china as a country you believe then 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 the states or i mean brazil if 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 don't want to get at odds with any superpower i just i just want to i just want the best thing for our country that's that's magic foreign policy you know one a there is not a it's not

a player in the world then. 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 as it 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 you'll reach and 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 in barbados broken down do you see any positive moves to to to resolving this humanitarian

crisis well you just said is a humanitarian crisis and the other thing is that it's a matter of time. i don't know if one way than my succeed but i'm sure my daughter cannot stay in power for long i mean people are getting salaries of 2 or 4 dollars a month working 8 hours a day to get $4.00 a month you cannot buy. you can i buy a piece of bread and some mags with a month's salary in venezuela so he can stay in power he can stay in power for long now you would say why do you meddle into venezuela and that well it's different because. you're talking about our region for her 1st 2nd bend of the venice who other. diplomats were meddling into our politics back and also their 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 like again this is magic approach to foreign relations you have a very interesting perspective on this because you were in your career a representative of a left leaning party you've 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's some things you had to in my 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 he's done at 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 were and they were really 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 melissa 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 proceed to be young but i think that this new generation has been. surrounded by different things in the world that it's totally globalization

and into connected all of these new commerce even though i don't know any of them but they share. what they were surrounded worth when the and their upbringing so now they're being placed in positions of power. i don't know if they're going to be good or bad bad they're going to be different. so that is 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 that 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 to caylee all of el salvador thank you very much for talking about this you know thank you for having.

the opinion i think i've learned that the 1st amendment is really key to being a freedom are you. going to be. men or women are the forces that are available but it's al-jazeera story is that we just don't tell you what the subject of the story wants to know the government is not going to do the one thing the demonstrators want apologize for that's what al-jazeera does we ask the questions so that we can get closer to the truth. here. well we were.

we were. out when we learned. the bombardment of syria's last rebel held province intensifies as russia and china blocking un bid to deliver. this is al jazeera life and also telling up. to roaring in several australian states emergency workers confront what is being called catastrophic conditions. protest against to citizenship more spread across india several people were killed as crowds to 5 police back. to one and

lift off. new problems for boeing a setback minutes after launch.