Summary
El Salvador ended 2024 with a record low 114 homicides, equivalent to 1.9 per 100,000 people, making it the safest country in the Western Hemisphere according to President Nayib Bukele.
The drop follows two years under a state of emergency aimed at eradicating gang violence, granting authorities sweeping powers but limiting civil rights.
Over 83,000 arrests have been made, though 354 detainees reportedly died in custody.
While criticized for human rights violations, Bukele’s crackdown has drastically improved security, boosting his popularity.
Could it be that that number came from active warfare with the gangs (which have now been neutered)?
Syria’s numbers are literally from an active civil war, and they’re half of El Salvador’s.
So no, I don’t really feel like that holds water as a justification. Valid as context, yes, but there’s still no good reason for the number to be that high.
Also “Our country is really peaceful now that we’ve run out of people for cops to kill” doesn’t exactly sound like a paradise to me.
Yes, it’s why Bukele is popular. But we shouldn’t be holding it up as something to emulate.
Doesn’t that make their numbers immediately questionable? Especially since what level of policing do you even have during a civil war
What it means in this case is that you’ve got open warfare between the police and a large segment of the populace. Not unlike your premise that the numbers from El Salvador are the result of, effectively, open warfare between the police and the gangs.
Neither countries numbers are any more or less questionable than the other’s. Take from this what you will.
I’d say in Syria it was more militants and militaries doing the warfare rather than police, but that’s just my gut feeling, the police’s involvement might’ve been larger than I think
Read the source. It specifically notes that the numbers from Syria are exceptionally high because they are in the context of an active civil war.
No