Murders Are Down 92% In El Salvador After Controversial Mass Incarceration Push

El Salvador has seen a drastic drop in its homicide rate since implementing an unprecedented incarceration campaign, jailing anyone suspected of being involved in the notorious MS-13 and 18th Street gangs, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Frequently considered one of the world's most dangerous countries, El Salvador has seen homicides drop roughly 92% compared with 2015 figures. The jailing campaign has been hugely popular among residents, with 90% supporting President Nayib Bukele, who launched the crackdown in March 2022.

However, activists claim the country's "war on gangs" comes with a heavy price, as innocent civilians are often swept up in raids and rarely given timely trials. Human rights organization Cristosal believes at least 153 people have died in custody since the start of Bukele's crackdown. In many cases, inmates' bodies showed signs of torture, strangulation, and physical abuse. Approximately 65,000 people — roughly 1% of the country's population — have been jailed as part of the anti-gang initiative. In 2000, the nation had just 7,754 people behind bars, according to data from World Prison Brief.

The Central American country now has the world's highest incarceration rate, approximately double that of the U.S., as reported by the Journal.

The country's new Center for Confining Prison is thought to be the largest in the Americas and can house up to 40,000 inmates at a time. Bukele posted a video of hundreds of inmates being processed at the new facility on his Twitter account in early March. Up to that point, La Esperanza, formerly the country's largest prison, squeezed 33,000 inmates into a space designed for just 10,000 people.

Coinciding with the crackdown, the number of Salvadorans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border has declined sharply, dropping to 36,500 in the eight months leading up to June from 65,000 in the same period a year prior, as per the Journal.