Bukele: a year without murders in El Salvador
president Nayib Bukele, which is waging a “war” on drug gangs, said yesterday that El Salvador had gone 365 days without a homicide since it took office in 2019. “We ended May 10, 2023 with 0 homicides nationwide.” “That’s 365 days without a homicide, a full year,” he said on Twitter. A source in the President’s Secretariat for Communications explained that this is “the total number of days without a homicide from 2019 to date.” Bukele took power on June 1, 2019. That year the country finished with 38 homicides per 100,000 people, the trend has continued to fall, and 2022 ended with 7.8 homicides per 100,000 people.
The Minister of Justice and Security, Gustavo VillatoroHe assured that the murder-free days were “a historic milestone” and that the task begun in 2019 was “not easy, but neither is it impossible”. The reduction in homicides is part of a “war” Buckle declared on the gangs 13 months ago that has seen 68,294 gang members arrested. Much criticized by many, one fact seems certain: Of the most dangerous country in Latin America, El Salvador is now the safest.
Mexico launches database for more than 112,000 “missing” people
Relatives of missing persons continue to protest for truth and justice and now later this month AMLO will launch a new tool to help gather information on the 112,000 missing persons in Mexico. The registry collects information from a variety of databases on mass and clandestine graves, arrests, crimes of torture, criminal records, fingerprints and genetics. This is the reality of Mexico.
Ecuador signs free trade deal with China negotiated in less than a year
It is the fourth Latin American country to sign a similar deal with the Asian dictatorship.
Ortega expels the Red Cross from Nicaragua and confiscates its assets
The regime of Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo on Wednesday ordered the Nicaraguan Red Cross to be disbanded in an unprecedented event. The humanitarian organization was tasked in April 2018 with helping protesters injured by the government’s actions, and this is the dictator’s revenge. Besides that 1. The International Red Cross has expressed concern at the closure of its Nicaragua office by order of the dictatorship 2. Ortega has ordered the police to arrest anyone who criticizes him, his wife, his children and his government on social media or remembers the anti-government demonstrations five years ago, which were bloodily repressed by the regime.
Paolo Manzo, May 13, 2023
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