President Nayib Bukele announced that July was the safest month in El Salvador’s history, with the country’s homicide rate at 2.2 per 100,000 inhabitants for the year.
“July 2023 ends as the safest month in all of El Salvador’s history.”
“If we annualize the homicide rate from January to July, El Salvador, once the world’s most dangerous country, would have 2.2 annual homicides per 100,000 inhabitants,” the president stated on Twitter.
Moreover, Bukele reported zero violent deaths on July 31, according to the National Civil Police (PNC) daily report.
This adds to 23 days with no homicides in July and 149 days with no homicides for the year’s first seven months.
According to the PNC, 419 days with zero homicides were recorded during Bukele’s presidency, with 311 of those during a state of emergency declared by parliament on March 27, 2022.
This state of emergency suspended various constitutional guarantees and was passed in response to a wave of gang-related murders.
The government attributes the reduction in homicides, which peaked at 106.3 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015, to implementing the Territorial Control Plan on June 20, 2019, and the state of emergency, during which more than 71,000 people accused of being gang members were arrested.