Though few have noticed, Mexico has reduced its daily homicide count by 41% over the past 18 months, owing to President Claudia Sheinbaum’s pioneering new strategy for confronting organized crime. Such a sharp reduction is an historic achievement for Mexico – and puts Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's thuggish methods to shame.
MEXICO CITY—El Salvador’s homicide rate, previously among the world’s highest, has dropped dramatically under President Nayib Bukele’s authoritarian rule. Bukele argues that there is no alternative to his model of crime reduction, which includes a persistent state of emergency, mass incarcerations, and widespread human-rights violations. Institutional reforms move too slowly to mitigate the daily harm caused by gangs. No one, he claims, has ever come up with a security model as successful as his.
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