El Salvador was once one of the most dangerous countries in the world, but today its murder rate has dropped by 98 per cent in a decade, and the US now considers it safer to visit than Britain or France.
In 2015, there were 6,656 murders in the small Central American country, which has a population of just 6.4 million. But in 2024, there were only 114 killings.
The dramatic change came after President Nayib Bukele, who brands himself as the 'world's coolest dictator', launched an aggressive crackdown on crime.
In 2022, he declared a state of emergency, which remains in place. It gave security forces the power to arrest people without a warrant.
At one point, around 1,000 people a day were being detained on suspicion of gang involvement.
