📊 El Salvador's Crime Experiment

As the country reaches an impressive safety milestone, its prison population soars.

Welcome to Latinometrics. We bring you Latin American insights and trends through concise, thought-provoking data visualizations.

Crime 🇸🇻

Does a mano dura — literally “strong hand” — work against crime? El Salvador has certainly become a case study in recent years. President Nayib Bukele entered office in 2019 with a promise to crack down on gangs and crime in what was once the world’s most unsafe country. Bukele has delivered on the promise — the country's prison population has more than tripled in only a few years.

El Salvador's incarceration rate has hit 1.6K per 100,000, or 1.6% of the population. This rate is the highest share anywhere in the world by a wide margin; it's twice as high as the 2nd highest country, Cuba.

El Salvador Has the Highest Incarceration Rate in the World

Many of the people imprisoned are awaiting due legal process and were apprehended for suspected gang involvement. Statistically speaking, that means that, almost certainly, there are at least a few cases of innocent people currently sitting in jail.