El Salvador closes 2024 with a record low number of homicides, from 6,500 homicides to 114 - Funko Pop-loving ledditors comfortably living in North America and Western Europe come to terms that tough-on-crime policies maybe do work, and that the cringy problematic cryptobro chud dictator Nayee Bukkake actually.... did a good job?

My thoughts on how this was successfully accomplished in El Salvador, but not in Mexico are:

1. El Salvador is much smaller and less populated than Mexico, which is a geographically large country, and has countless regional cartels that are way, way more powerful and richer than the Salvadorian gangs are (they are not even called cartels btw), and thus, it is easier to get the situation under control if the government wants to.

2. MS-13 was nowhere close to being like the militarized, drone-using, multi-billion dollar drugs and arms trafficking empire that the Mexican Cartels are, the Mexicans are a whole different Goliath when compared to the Central American gangs, so I do not think that Salvadorian gangs were able to successfully bribe or assassinate each and every single politician and military figure in the country to allow them to continue their activities.

3. Unlike the Mexican Cartels, that have become de-facto state militia groups and thus have started to LARP as legitimate state organizations instead of random street criminals, through the use of propaganda, the Mexican Cartels try to portray themselves as badass anti-heroes, who protect local populations against extortionists, thieves, male feminists, rival cartels, corrupt politicians, and distribute humanitarian aid, food, money, and even toys and electronics to people in need, only brutally torturing and mutilating rival cartel members, the MS-13 and other Central American gangs however, did not gave two shits about winning the hearts and minds of the local population, they were more full-blown Columbine-esque psycho mass murderers who caused chaos for the sake of it, rather than criminal organizations working as business ventures for profit first and foremost, this effectively killed any realistic chances of politicians and civilians tolerating or collaborating with them, the basic narrative became, if you ally with the Mexican Cartels, you gain money, if you ally with MS-13, you gain mass murder, mass emigration, and economic and societal breakdown, as an example, look at Nigeria, where Boko Haram was so fricking unhinged in mass murdering children, that literally everyone hated them and wanted them gone, as a result, motherfricking ISIS were the ones who exterminated Boko Haram, and as a result won the support of the local population - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sambisa_Forest_(2021)

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I honestly have no clue how this guy manage to get where he is without being murdered along the way or how he managed to get police to put their lives on the line with this too, I can only imagine he's a CIA asset and there's some weird plan for El Salvador

Because the state is stronger than gangs, El Salvador is small and centralized enough so an authoritarian President can actually do something about crime.

This is not possible in countries like Brazil and Mexico.

In Brazil the facções collude with local authorities to keep their territory within certain shithole capitals, while the Federal Government pays lip service every now and then, the penalties for crimes are too lax and the judiciary is too incompetent and corrupt to actually put vagabundos in jail.

In Mexico there are entire states ruled by narcos, they have governors, state police and judges in their pockets and are beyond saving unless some centralized military dictatorship happens.

!neolibs

weird plan for El Salvador

The plan is probably to stop the gangs that enable the drug trade to America.

He's probably aligned with some criminal faction. There's no way in heck they would go this quietly without some backroom dealings

I can only imagine he's a CIA asset and there's some weird plan for El Salvador

Typical Latam logic. If you can't imagine how something works, it must be the CIA. You're like juggalos who don't understand magnets except you assume that it must be the CIA.

(Incidentally, women could join MS-13 or B-18. They could choose to be "beaten in" like everyone else, or opt for a literal gang bang, though the latter option carried a stigma as the relatively easy path.)