'1,000 Days Without Homicides'

Unfortunately, this headline doesn't refer to Washington, D.C., Chicago, or any city in the United States. I'm sure the picture of el presidente Nayib Bukele gave it away, but this headline is about El Salvador. 

Over the weekend, Bukele announced on X that El Salvador has gone "1,000 days without homicides" since he took office. These aren't consecutive days, mind you, but they're a major improvement over what was going on in that country before his leadership began. Here is his full statement (translated from Spanish): 

1,000 days without homicides.

I was recommended to make a national broadcast and give a speech to commemorate this historic milestone: 1,000 days without homicides since the start of our Government. But I believe that instead of speeches, the best thing is for us to reflect today on what our country has experienced and on all the forces that tried to prevent us from reaching this point. Those who always say 'impossible!' are unaware of the power of asking God for wisdom and accepting to be instruments of Him.

Thank you, God! Without your will, NOTHING is possible.

Thanks also to the best Security Cabinet that our country has ever had and to the thousands of men and women of our National Civil Police and our Armed Forces, who risked their lives so that we can finally live in true PEACE.

Unfortunately, cities like D.C. and Chicago lack the type of leadership that might allow them to ever make these sorts of declarations. 

We all know the story by now. For decades, El Salvador was a violent hellhole; 90% of the country was overrun by gang members and other criminals. Law-abiding citizens couldn't go to work or school, couldn't play in the parks, and couldn't walk down the streets without fear for their lives, especially if they didn't pay el derecho de piso, or a fee in exchange for "protection." In 2016, CNN reported that the country averaged one homicide per hour. 

No one should have to live like that, and Bukele campaigned on ending it. On the weekend of March 27, 2022, there were 87 murders in El Salvador, and Bukele had officially had enough. The government issued a state of exception and began doing what was necessary to eradicate gang members who were well-hidden among the country's population. It was the only way to liberate the country and its people. 

Many on the left have criticized his methods, citing human rights violations, but I find that a lot of that criticism comes from outside El Salvador. The law-abiding citizens of his country mostly like Bukele — he actually has one of the highest organic approval ratings of any world leader. Many of these people have never seen peace in their lifetimes. I also say that unless you lived in El Salvador before he took office, you might just want to sit this one out. Sometimes, extreme measures are necessary to combat extreme situations, and you can't look at them under a U.S.-centric microscope.   

"You cannot do anything if you do not have peace...you need to be able to move freely, to be able to have your basic rights respected, starting with the right to live, the right to move, the right to have property," Bukele said during an interview with Tucker Carlson last year, adding, "What about the human right of a woman not to be raped? What about the human right of kids to play or to be free or to go to the park? What about the human right to live, to walk in the street?"   

Here's a look at murder rates in El Salvador over the last decade. 

🇸🇻 Homicides per 100k inhabitants in El Salvador:

2015 - 106.3
2016 - 84.1
2017 - 83.0
2018 - 53.1
2019 - 38.0
2020 - 21.2
2021 - 18.1
2022 - 7.8
2023 - 2.4
2024 - 1.9
2025 ~ <1 (projected)

— World of Statistics (@stats_feed) August 30, 2025

Not bad for the former "Murder Capital of the World," huh? 

To put this in perspective, in 2024, the city of Chicago had 21.5 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. According to the White House, "out of Chicago’s 147,899 reported crimes since January 1, arrests have been made in just 16.2% of them."  

In Washington, D.C., the murder rate in 2024 was 27.3 per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2023, it was 41 per 100,000 people.   

Donald Trump seems to be the only person concerned about this these days, and he's trying to fix it so that law-abiding citizens of these cities can live freely again. He's not even suggesting the extreme methods Bukele had to use. I'll never understand the Democrats' protests against this. 

Imagine belonging to the party that chooses crime over peace and believes criminals have more rights than their victims — because that's exactly who they are proving themselves to be at this time. In the last few months, all I've heard out of that side of the political aisle is defense for gang members, defense for school shooters, and defense for street criminals in cities like D.C. 

Instead of trying to sanction Bukele and condemning Trump, maybe they should take notes instead.

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