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El Salvador’s Amazing President
He’s literally transformed his country during his first term
El Salvador’s President, Nayib Bukele, is running for re-election.
Prior to his election, El Salvador was known for its:
- corruption
- crime
- MS-13 gangs
- lack of infrastructure
- lack of foreign investment
Since he took office, these things have changed dramatically.
When Bukele took office, his country was dealing with one of the highest murder rates in the world. There were 103 murders per 100,000 people in 2015. For a comparison, the murder rate in St. Louis was 69.4 in 2023. The main driver of El Salvador’s extreme numbers was the prevalence of MS-13 gang activity.
Corrupt government officials allowed the gangs to not only harass the local citizenry but also to bother tourists, which had an obvious effect on the country’s economy.
Under Bukele, the murder rate was down to 8 per 100,000 in 2022, which makes a 92% drop since he took office. Now El Salvador’s murder rate is a third of Mexico’s, and better than the numbers for US cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.
