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The Economist 27 Jun 2026 20 here now

Should Latin America replicate El Salvador’s President Bukele’s crackdown on gangs? | The Economist

President Nayib Bukele has transformed El Salvador with his crackdown on drug gangs. By locking up 2% of the adult population, he has slashed the murder rate–what was once one of the worst in the worl

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Extremely encouraging to see voices at the economist speaking plainly about legalisation as the only way to end the cartel trail of tears
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The conclusion of these NGO clowns is problems can not be solved because we don't approve criminals to be victimized by the state.
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This panel doesn't know the reality of the Salvadorean society. Whether is applicable in other parts of the world, that would be up to their citizens.
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The "only problem" is that that is part of an accord with the chiefs of the gangs that continue in freedom while their "instruments" are in that terrible jail. They should have been the first, but the corruption, you know...
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I'm Colombian I also work with Salvadoreños.The change that has happened to normal people's lives. These people don't understand that extorsión also exists in Colombia by gangs who are not part of any cartels.If Mega prisons was built in Colombia and life sentences giving .it would really change security . In Colombia there is no " farmers" the land where the coke is grown is controlled by paramilitares and left wing guerilla the people who grow the coke are narcos who rent the land of the guerilla
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A safe environment for business only goes so far. The people that have been left behind need opportunities or they will always be inclined to join those who provide short term benefits. Spending money on social programs has proven to be more effective than prisons and wars are the most inefficient method of coercion.
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NO PLEASE DON'T PRESS THE "FIX EVERYTHING" BUTTON! WHY? LOOK, YOU JUST CAN'T OKAYYYYY?
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didn't the salvadorian gangs also get into drug trafficking? how are they going to stop that? i'm shocked that absolutely everytime i see these inverviews with top experts NO ONE even mentions cutting back drug addiction in thes States via treatment programs, even though this addiction is the actual SOURCE of the whole trafficking and violence in latin america.
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Wow, the research on crime is being taken to dark ages!
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@MHe-x2t From YouTube ↗ 30 Jun 2026 23
What was the rule of law and democracy when the gangs were running everything? Why do we have militaries? Oh that's right - to protect the people.
Is the UK any better for locking everyone up that posts messages online that the politicians don't like?
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@allards From YouTube ↗ 30 Jun 2026 25
It seems the people around the table don’t want this to be solved; they seem ideologically invested in such problems continuing to exist. Of course it can be solved, taking El Salvador’s President Bukele’s crackdown on gangs as inspiration and adapting it to specific situations. El Tigre in Colombia might demonstrate how easy it actually is, putting these talking heads with their biased opinions to shame.
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One word: Yes.
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Yes but the problem goes well beyond gangs in some countries, Costa Rica is basically a narco state at this point, gangs and government operations are fully integrated
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@Jairo_Z1 From YouTube ↗ 30 Jun 2026 27
Bukele literally erased gangs in record time, now the country is freaking safer than Canada in terms of homicides an crime rate! lol. so it's even crazier to ask whether or not the same model should be replicated on other Latin American countries. The model WORKS and it works great!
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From ECUADOR 100% YES. WE VOTED FOR THIS AND ARE NOT ATTACKING THE BANDITS ENOUGH.
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Bukele got right one thing:
If you behave like barbaric, your human rights gets revoked .

We want to think we all deserve human rights, we clearly don’t.
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@trotro80 From YouTube ↗ 30 Jun 2026 17
As expected someone in a panel of the Economist had to take the liberal stance 5:56 But of course he can only do so sitting in his secure first world London office not at all affected by all this terror of narco cartels people in Latin America have to put up with since many decades.
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@Mike-zk7rh From YouTube ↗ 30 Jun 2026 130
2 percent of population for the 98 percent of the rest of population to be safe sounds fine to me.
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@ifromm7719 From YouTube ↗ 30 Jun 2026 96
Absolutely YES! I'm Honduran and my country has been terrorized by gangs and cartels for 30 years. I justed visited El Salvador in June, and Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama as well. El Salvador is a model country and what Bukele has accomplished is amazing. He understands that the security of salvadoreños IS a top national interest.
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@dankuo8561 From YouTube ↗ 30 Jun 2026 135
Look at Singapore as an example of what law and order can accomplish. A safe environment for business to flourish is a pre-requisite to prosperity.