Salvadorian here. Data is likely embellished, like a lot. The country is safe undoubtedly but a lot of murders end up being classified as a death (accidental, etc.).
That may be a small part of it, but they also incarcerated a heavy amount of gang members/those they believe were gang affiliated through repressive means and gang violence was a large part of the homicide rate in El Salvador.
It explains exactly why the numbers plummeted as much as they did.
The government may be slightly under reporting numbers (particularly by those incarcerated), but homicide rates in El Salvador are still some of the lowest, if not the lowest, in the world and people can safely walk through places at night they wouldn't have dared to even come near during the day 10 years ago.
Not what the original comment was asking though. He was asking if data is accurate and no, data is not accurate. Bukele's government is one of the least transparent in the western world. And nothing is published without being approved by his marketing folks (ran by Sofi Medina).
The country is obviously safer, but nobody has accurate data because there's no way to validate the methodology used to measure anything.
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u/n4s0 7d ago
Salvadorian here. Data is likely embellished, like a lot. The country is safe undoubtedly but a lot of murders end up being classified as a death (accidental, etc.).