With falling inflation and interest rates, Argentine President Javier Milei turns his attention away from the economy, and gets real on the fight against criminal gangs.
As his Security Minister visits El Salvador, we learn that Milei is considering emulating Nayib Bukele’s effective – if controversial – crackdown on violent crime.
Telegraph reported:
“Patricia Bullrich, a longtime law-and-order hardliner, toured the Terrorism Confinement Centre on Sunday. She praised the iron-fist approach taken by Nayib Bukele, president of the Central American nation.
‘From a country overtaken by violence, drug-trafficking and the maras [gangs] who murdered 150,000 El Salvadorans to one of the safest in the world, where families have recovered their lives and live in peace. This is the path. Tough against the criminals. Freedom for Argentines’, she posted on X.”
The massive prison was built in 2023 and jail can hold up to 40,000 prisoners.
El Salvador had the world’s highest murder rate, as much as 107 per 100,000 people – more than 100 times higher than in the UK.
“But in March 2022 [Bukele] placed the entire nation in an official state of emergency, suspending constitutional rights and due process. Since then, nearly 80,000 alleged gang members, often identifiable by their shaven heads and tattoos, have been locked up, making areas that were previously police no-go zones safe.”
Needless to say, allegations of wrongful arrests, torture and deaths in custody followed.
But that does not keep Milei from looking up to Bukele, and developing a fertile relationship with him.
“The Argentine president was one of a handful of world leaders who attended the inauguration, held in private, of Mr Bukele’s second term earlier in June. The pair were pictured beaming at a one-on-one meeting afterwards”
Meanwhile, some doubt whether the El Salvadoran template would work in Argentina.
Xiomara Castro, leader of Honduras, also unveiled plans to build a new Bukele-like mega=prison to hold 20,000 gang members there.
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