El Salvador donates vaccine to desperate Honduras towns

El Salvador's president has sent 34,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine to seven towns in Honduras in response to video pleas from their mayors posted to social media

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador -- El Salvador's president sent 34,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine to seven towns in Honduras on Thursday, responding to video pleas from their mayors posted to social media. The small-scale diplomacy by President Nayib Bukele raised eyebrows in El Salvador and Honduras, but most people agreed that ultimately it would benefit a population in desperate need of vaccine. El Salvador has been more successful than neighboring Honduras and Guatemala in obtaining vaccine, though all lag in vaccinating their people. The highly public move also provided a distraction at a time of growing concern among some Salvadorans and international observers over the consolidation of power in El Salvador’s three branches of government by the party led by Bukele, who is highly popular domestically. On Tuesday, the same day Bukele met with White House Special Envoy Ricardo Zúñiga, who expressed the U.S. government's reservations about developments in El Salvador, the president received the seven Honduran mayors and told them his government would help.