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InSight Crime's 2021 Homicide Round-Up

InSight Crime

1 February 2022

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El Salvador: 17.6 per 100,000
El Salvador saw another decline in murders last year, albeit a much smaller decrease than that of 2020, when killings were slashed nearly in half.

El Salvador's National Police recorded 1,140 homicides in 2021, a drop of about 200 killings from 2020. A murder rate of just 17.6 per 100,000 people - while still high - was unimaginable in the Central American nation just several years ago, when the rate topped more than 100.

President Nayib Bukele has taken full credit for the plunge in killings, which he attributes to a security policy of sending police and troops into gang-controlled neighborhoods. But his claim was undercut when the US Treasury Department sanctioned administration officials late last year, alleging they had negotiated with incarcerated gang leaders to reduce homicides in exchange for access to cell phones and sex workers.

While the number of killings dropped, sudden spikes in homicides occurred last year. During three days in November, El Salvador recorded 46 homicides, including 22 on a single day, the worst daily death toll in 2021. Street gang bosses allegedly unleashed the killings.

Sudden waves of violence were the norm. At the start of 2021, nearly two dozen people were killed across three days. A single week in November tallied 21 murders.

ID: N867

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