El Salvador’s president threatens to use gang-crackdown style tactics against price gougers

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, famous for his heavy-handed crackdown on street gangs, has threatened to use similar tactics against price gougers. Bukele has rounded up tens of thousands of suspected street gang members — often on little evidence — and filmed them being frog-marched in their underwear though vast new prisons. Ina speech late Friday, he threatened to use the same tactics on store owners and distributors who he blamed for a recent steep rise in the prices for basic food items and other goods. Recently reelected with 85% of the vote, Bukele controls Congress and has been granted special emergency powers for more than two years.