Official reports indicated that authorities reduced the daily average of homicides in the semester to 0.31, which shows the progress in the fight against gangs with the aim of creating an environment conducive to the economic awakening announced by President Nayib Bukele in his inauguration speech on June 1.

A review in Diario El Salvador stated that the insecurity that characterized El Salvador a few years ago is now just a dark past and that since 2019, the country has been transforming and it is now the safest nation in the Western Hemisphere due to the drastic and sustained drop in homicide indicators.

Actions against drug trafficking groups add up to the results of the actions against crime.

According to Minister of Defense René Merino, 39.5 tons of drugs worth 930 million dollars have been seized during the Bukele administration, a record among governments in the region.

This safe environment is considered conducive to facing the challenges of the economy, which includes attacking poverty as an urgent task, according to Carlos Acevedo, economist and former president of the Central Reserve Bank (BCR).

Citing official data from the Multipurpose Household Survey, the expert emphasized that there are 1.92 million Salvadorans in poverty, 600,000 of whom live in extreme conditions and who must be helped “at least so that they can eat,” he said in his appeal to the government. Acevedo, who is a prospective Minister of Economy in President Bukele’s new cabinet, explained that one-third of the local population faces poverty, and the government must address that by “generating economic measures so that there are jobs and income” as part of the challenges.

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