A Look at Crime in El Salvador

Author

Bubba
25 Sep

El Salvador’s turnaround under President Nayib Bukele has been stunning to witness. (Gallup)

Chart: Gallup

The latest Gallup Global Safety report: A record-high 88% of El Salvadorans feel safe walking alone at night where they live.

  • For comparison’s sake, just 72% of Americans say the same about their country.

  • Torn by gang warfare, El Salvador had the highest murder rate in the world in 2015, but Bukele’s iron-handed policies have led to a 92% decrease in homicides.

  • The Central American nation now ranks among Gallup’s “most safe” countries in the world and boasts one of the lowest homicide rates in the western hemisphere.

Related: While the Bukele administration’s first priority has been stabilizing the crime rate, the country’s already made some progress on the economy.

  • Before Bukele’s presidency, Salvadorans were handing over 3% of the country's GDP to gangs, according to a study by the central bank and UN Development Programme.

  • According to the same study, fear of gang violence also kept people from working, resulting in lost income equivalent to nearly 16% of GDP.

Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations:

After Bukele’s first term, there are some signs of economic improvement: unemployment has fallen by about one percentage point, but consumer spending barely rose last year, amid an uptick in remittances. Foreign direct investment has improved somewhat, and after a negative $99 million performance in 2022, inflows during the first three quarters of 2023 reached $487 million. The yearly performance, however, still is poised to lag behind the $826 million El Salvador netted on FDI in 2018, the year before he got elected, and the country continues to rank last among its Central American neighbors on this metric.

The vibes: Polls show Bukele is one of the most popular leaders in all of Latin America, and a solid majority of Salvadorans want to reelect him.