The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, once again became the center of an international dispute after responding to the delirious statements made by Chicago's Democratic mayor, Brandon Johnson, who claimed that it is "racist" to imprison criminals in order to end violence.
Johnson's remarks came amid the debate over the rise in crime in major cities across the country, especially those led by left-wing leaders, and were aimed at questioning the successful tough-on-crime and incarceration policies.
In response to the Democrat's statements, Bukele replied on his social media, accompanying the post with a series of charts on the evolution of violence in El Salvador since 2000, and particularly under his administration. In his response, he stated: "You can literally end violence by imprisoning criminals. That is precisely what imprisonment exists for in the first place."
The data shared by the president show the drastic drop in homicides in El Salvador since 2019, when he took office and launched his security strategy based on the "State of Exception" and the construction of large penitentiary centers.
One of the charts reflects the joint evolution of the homicide rate and the incarceration rate from 2000 to 2024. While the red line, corresponding to homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, reaches peaks above 100 in 2015 and remains at high levels until 2018, it drops sharply from 2019 onward. By 2024, the rate stands at below 2 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, an unprecedented figure in the country.
