Photo: STR / AFP / Getty Images
By: EFE
Sunday, September 22
Nayib Bukele says that El Salvador is not “even close” the most violent country in the world
The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele , assured that the Central American country is not “even close” the most violent in the world as a result of the reduction in homicides and pointed out that it is not among the first either 10 violent nations .
“We have come from being the most violent country in the world and now we are not even close in those numbers, we are not even in the top 10 ”, said the president during the laying of the first stone for the construction of a bridge between El Salvador and Guatemala.
Official figures
El Salvador became 2015 in the most violent country in the world with a Cup of homicides of 103 per 98, 000 inhabitants and after this escalation the figures began to drop by 2016, but the most marked drops in these crimes occurred since 2019 , year in which Bukele came to power in June.
Indicated that the Police, Prosecutor’s Office and Institute of Legal Medicine are “certifying the figures” , as well as “international organizations that are not totally related.”
He criticized that, in his opinion, “ What the opposition does is that they highlight each case “of homicide or disappearance.
Bukele said that each case” is no cause for joy for anyone , is reason for lut or, of sadness, of pain ”,“ but it is a reason for joy that others did not die 28, that others did not disappear 20″, like in the past.
Regarding the criticism of the violence that is still hitting the country, he said that “of course we are not good in security, we are bad in security, we have to continue working to really have a safe country, but we must know where we come from. ”
The consolidated figures from January to September indicate that the country recorded a drop in the cumulative number of homicides overall from 10.2%, going from 969 in 2020 to 870 on 2021.
If the comparison is made in between this same period of 2021 with 2019, the drop is approximately 54. 7%.
However, the number of femicides experienced an increase of 31. 25% , in the referred period going from 48 Femicides in 2020 to 63 on 2021.
If the data of 2021 is compared to 2019, when were computed femicides between January and September, the result is a decrease of 35 cases, equivalent to 35. 7%.
Truce?
The country faced an escalation of murders in early November that claimed the lives of more than 40 people, even registering 20 murders in a single day, when the average was of about 3 homicides per day.
To try to control the escalation, of which no further details have been given about its origin, 40 , elements of the PNC and the Armed Forces.
President Bukele spoke on Twitter on allegations that the sudden rise and fall of murders is related to a “truce” or supposed negotiation with gangs.
“I have seen comments from people who say that the drop in homicides is due to a kind of ‘truce’. Ask the police and soldiers who are in the streets, who have lost their licenses and have not seen their families, who have patrolled our entire country at night … “, said the president on the social network.
Bukele, without going into details or providing evidence, previously attributed this rise in homicides to “dark forces who are working so that we return to the past” and assured that “this government will not allow it.”
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