El Salvador daily quoted Bukele as saying the day before that he will forward the request to Parliament seeking to repeal the Law Prohibiting Metallic Mining, which was approved in March 2017.

“A few days back we announced we are going to present the Legislative Assembly with a request to repeal the mining ban in El Salvador, and when opponents asked “How come you intend to do so?”, I responded: there is no country that has banned mining,” Bukele said.

Confirmation of his statements came during a meeting he held with senior representatives of the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) at the Presidential House.

The government’s plan triggered criticism from environmental organizations, arguing such a move will cause deaths and ecological disaster.

“I understand their concern, the president said, and added that the stark reality is that when 95 percent of the rivers are polluted, one should not focus on saving the remaining five percent, but on recovering the 95 percent that was lost”.

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