El Salvador, plagued by gang violence, recorded the lowest homicide rate in its history in 2022, according to Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado.
The homicide rate in El Salvador has fallen to
"7.8 per 100,000 inhabitants"
, Justice and Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro said at a press conference.
The Attorney General of the small Central American country, Rodolfo Delgado, said it was
"the lowest figure in the history of El Salvador"
.
"It's a decrease never seen in our country, where society was used to living between violence and death
," he said.
In 2022, 495 homicides were recorded, compared to 1,147 the previous year (18.1 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021).
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In 2019, when current President Nayib Bukele came to power, this rate had reached 38 per 100,000, according to ministry statistics.
Nayib Bukele welcomed in December that his country had gone from being the most dangerous in the world to that of
"the safest in Latin America"
.
For Minister Gustavo Villatoro, this reduction in violence is to be attributed to the fight against gangs led by the government, which decreed an emergency regime at the end of March.
This war on gangs, criticized by rights organizations, has led to the arrest of more than 60,000 people since March for alleged links to criminal organizations, according to official figures.