Torres Focused on Helping Central American People Ahead of Latest Efforts to Combat Corruption

Press Release

Congresswoman Norma J. Torres (CA-35), Co-Chair of the Congressional Central America Caucus, today released the following statement after her efforts to address corruption in the Northern Triangle drew attacks on Twitter from El Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele and his enablers.

The situation comes just days before a list requested by Rep. Torres is set to be delivered from the U.S. State Department and U.S. Treasury to Congress identifying corrupt actors in the region and any efforts our government has taken to hold them accountable.

Rep. Torres, who was born in Guatemala and is currently the only Central American serving in the U.S. Congress, released the following statement:

"Every child in Central America deserves a life of dignity and security in their home country -- and they deserve a central government that will work to make that happen," Rep. Norma J. Torres said. "Instead, corrupt elites throughout the region enrich themselves at their people's expense, leaving Central Americans to suffer in poverty and violence.

"That any parent feels so hopeless for their children in their home country that they would send them on a dangerous journey north is an indictment of the lack of leadership and opportunity in those nations," Torres continued. "It is a desperate choice that no parent should have to make anywhere. My focus is and always has been on the children forced to flee, the parents forced to send their kids away, and the people who lose their lives on the dangerous trek north that never should have felt necessary in the first place.

"I am accountable to my constituents to make sure their hardworking taxpayer dollars that we send in foreign aid actually reach the people who are suffering -- not the corrupt governments that would rather line their own pockets. And I will never hesitate from shining a light on the corruption that is the foundation for so much suffering.

"In the coming days, I look forward to a new stage in this work as a report I requested on corrupt officials in Central America is delivered to Congress," Torres added. "It does not matter to me who it implicates -- it matters to me that we hold those people accountable, and that we help uphold democracy, justice, human rights, and the rule of law across Central America."

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