I'm aware. But I went there and verified. I talked to every person I met in El Salvador about the gangs and if they support the president & they do. Their stories about the gangs are awful, they don't care how he dealt with them, just that they can now leave their homes after sundown, that theyre business arent extorted for money, that theyre daughters arent raped, that they have freedom of movement, that 5 yr old kids arent being recruited by gangs, that they can finally see their families in other parts of the country, that people arent being burned alive to intimidate thr public. Safety is a basic need and he's the first leader to give it to them. The opposition even acknowledges he has a 90% rating.
You do realise that the HRF designates your precious El Salvador as a "Competitive Authoritarian Regime" a nebulous term that can best be defined as "democratic but not libcuck" so the US doesn't like them.
https://hrf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2022-HRF-Annual-Report.pdf
Discussion
I don’t think it was better policing tho, it’s more like they arrested anyone even remotely suspected to be involved in gang activity.
For the majority of the population, this policing has changed their life drastically for the better. It's not good from a human rights perspective, but they are very happy with it (from everyone I spoke to); and families from abroad are finally coming back - spoke to a number of people that hadn't been back for 5, 10, 20, even 45 years!
Thanks for this Mags. If given the choice,and similar circumstances, most people would accept the trade offs. By the sounds of it, the tyranny of the gangs was a far worst choice.
Yes, let's see in eg 10 years, but rn the people are happy about the freedom from gangs they've been given. I came I skeptical wrt the approval rating, but I talked to everyone I met (Google Translate for the win)
The main point of my previous post was that the HRF is not a neutral reliable organisation. It lumps countries like El Salvador in with China (who as a functioning authoritarian regime have successfully choked most of the use of bitcoin in the country) and non functioning African states.
Nigeria from your statista list is #16 on the fragile states index and has a sizeable black market where USD is king. In a functioning state, authoritarian or otherwise; neither foreign, nor crypto currency would be allowed to gain such a foothold.
NYC has a similar program called stop and frisk. It’s apparently not as effective after someone decided it was “racist”.
Members of the most infamous Salvadoran gang MS-13 are supposed to commit one murder to be initiated. These tattoos could potentially be considered evidence, though it's obviously a bit iffy.
Imagine if western countries put all people with suspicious tattoos in camps. It would be a massive international scandal. But it goes to show that effective policing depends on the population you’re targeting.