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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
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Howard Buffett Gives Millions to El Salvador

Warren Buffett’s son Howard was back in El Salvador this week, doing what he likes best: giving away millions of dollars. Impressed by the new government of President Nayib Bukele, Howard Buffett is investing in El Salvadoran security and in the capital city's nicest park.

(CN) — Warren Buffett’s son Howard was back in El Salvador this week, doing what he likes best: giving away millions of dollars. Impressed by the new government of President Nayib Bukele, Howard Buffett is investing in El Salvadoran security and in the capital city's nicest park.

This trip involved the donation of $25 million: $5 million for the continuing reconstruction of San Salvador's signature Cuscatlán Park, a 17-acre beauty that Buffett has been financing, according to Clarinero, a news website in El Salvador.

The other $20 million will pay for a law enforcement center in the historic center of the city.

In response to Bukele's election, Howard Buffett gave $20 million for a new police lab that will include state of the art forensic capacity, along with the first $5 million for the restoration of Cuscatlán park, according to ElSalvador.com, a conservative news site.

Bukele has attracted the attention of many world leaders, as he represents a popular alternative to the kleptocracy that has choked El Salvador for more than 30 years.

Bukele brought the bacon home in November when he went to China and Qatar and secured hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure investments in water purification, railroad development, a new cargo airport and a state of the art sports stadium, among other projects and investments.

Buffett is in line to become a nonexecutive chairman at his father’s company, Berkshire Hathaway. He also serves on its board. Warren Buffett’s children, raised in relative modesty, won’t be inheriting the family fortune for personal use, after the billionaire famously decided to donate the vast majority of his money to charity (some of it went to his children’s charitable foundations). Howard’s share in Berkshire Hathaway was worth more than $4 billion in 2015, according to Bloomberg. His father and late mother wanted the money to be used for the greater good.

In other news from Latin America, elections in Peru last Sunday produced stunning results.

President Martin Vizcarra dissolved congress in September and called for new elections. This came after a series of constitutional standoffs between his administration and the majority bloc of legislators belonging to the Fuerza Popular (Popular Force), a rightist group led by Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori.

The elder Fujimori is serving a 25-year prison sentence for human rights violations during his administration (1990-2000).

Keiko had taken leadership of Fuerza Popular but was arrested on corruption allegations involving her campaigns for president in 2011 and 2016. She was released from prison in November but this week was returned to prison on charges of corruption involving Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction company that paid millions of dollars in bribes to get contracts throughout Latin America.

Her return to prison followed Sunday's election in which the Fuerza Popular lost its majority in congress, dropping from 73 of the seats to fewer than 20.

Also in prison for taking bribes from Odebrecht is former Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-18).

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