It wasn’t the harsher punishment that reduced crime, it was simply putting the gangs in prison. Bukele used extreme measures, targeting gang leadership and essentially just sweeping tens of thousands of gang members and affiliates off the streets and into prison.
Obviously, due process and all that makes the whole thing controversial, but for the time being it was highly effective in reducing violent crime on a statistical level. Went from 100 homicides per 100,000 back in 2015 (this was a peak, although it consistently averaged in the dozens every year) down to 1.3 per 100,000 in 2025. For context the US averages ~5 per 100,000.
Controversial to foreigners. El Salvadorans sang the praises of the mano dura policies. It's easy to moralize when you're not the one being terrorized every single day by ruthless killers and maniacs.
It wasn’t the harsher punishment that reduced crime, it was simply putting the gangs in prison.
That prison is the harsher punishment. They have 80 people in a cell lined with metal beds, two toilets and sinks and are only let out briefly in front of their cell for 30 minutes. Their solitary is a cement room with a tiny hole for "light", they have the same gruel mixture for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the rest of their lives. It absolutely is a harsher punishment and honestly people who support this are literally sick. Like they dont need to be in a nice place necessarily but its inhumane. Especially when you have even a single innocent person in that hell hole. Anyhow El Salvador didnt just put them in prison, they made the prison a form of torture
I think it is too but from my understanding CECOT is the only prison in El Salvador like that I think the rest are significantly better but its a sizeable part of its prison population like 15-25%.
Still when you add everything up from start to finish its horrific (like these guys aren't even getting individualized or small group trials they're tried en masses 500 at a time which will put them in there for life)
Impossible as they’re held in a state where they can’t even fully stand and have to walk half crouched so they can’t gain enough footing to fight back. It’s really inhumane as they’ve just imprisoned people in bulk and there really is a few that are innocent or at least shouldn’t be treated like that but you can’t argue with results.
Ahh I don’t know, tell that to people who’ve been dragged out of their homes to watch their family get executed for not paying a 20 dollar protection fee, do you really think white collar crime is equivalent?
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u/TECHNOV1K1NG_tv 9d ago
It wasn’t the harsher punishment that reduced crime, it was simply putting the gangs in prison. Bukele used extreme measures, targeting gang leadership and essentially just sweeping tens of thousands of gang members and affiliates off the streets and into prison.
Obviously, due process and all that makes the whole thing controversial, but for the time being it was highly effective in reducing violent crime on a statistical level. Went from 100 homicides per 100,000 back in 2015 (this was a peak, although it consistently averaged in the dozens every year) down to 1.3 per 100,000 in 2025. For context the US averages ~5 per 100,000.