Inside the biggest gang crackdown in historical past – how one man put 1% of his folks in jail

El Salvador used to be known as the murder capital of the world – but since populist leader Nayib Bukele took over it’s been transformed into “the safest country in the western world”.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, violent gangs like Mara Sulvatrucha (MS-13) ruled the streets. Business owners were forced to pay a heavy extortion rate to sell their wares, and if you didn’t comply the chances of you getting killed were high. At times, the tiny Central American country resembled an apocalyptic ghost region – the rampant criminals’ sway drove a mass exodus of El Salvador’s civilians seeking safer climes north to the US.

In 2019, President Nayib Bukele took over as leader and put in place a “state of emergency”, allowing him use of what some termed “extreme measures” to fight the gangs.

In March 2022, Bukele ordered a crackdown that began last year and involved sending police into supposed “gangland territories” to arrest people.

The “dystopian” scenes seen earlier this week – where an army of thousands of military and police closed in around a neighbourhood – have become the normality in the country where the murder rate plummeted from 53 per 100,000 people in 2018 to 2.4 per 100,000 a year ago.

With a drop in one thing, there’s always a rise in another. Bukele’s state of emergency temporarily suspended constitutional guarantees – like the rights to have lawyers and a fair trial – allowing soldiers to raid communities, apprehending anyone who they suspected of having gang ties.

The mass arrests pushed El Salvador into the top spot in terms of incarceration rates, with 1% of the national population ending up getting thrown in jail, according to Wall Street Journal. In a YouTube documentary about the crackdown, host Nick Shirley interviewed El Salvador’s Minister of Justice and Safety Gustavo Villatoro.

In a clip Villatoro can be seen showing off an array of high-tech equipment available to authorities, alongside lethal automatic weapons used by cops on a daily basis. “We know that God supports us in what we do,” Villatoro told Shirely. “All these terrorist members are not going to return to their communities.”

For many, Bukele’s harsh measures proved incredibly popular and, as gangs were washed off the streets, the president’s approval rating soared at one point to 91%. But some human rights groups and communities in El Salvador say the new-found peace comes at a high price.

In 2023, the Wall Street Journal interviewed a mother whose four children had suddenly vanished overnight after working as street vendors. “It’s sad not knowing anything about my children for a year,” she told WSJ reporter Santiago Perez. “I know nothing of their whereabouts.”

To help Bukele keep on top of industrial haulings of new lags, the state set up a futuristic mass-prison called CECOT – a prison that holds more than 12,000 gang members sleeping in four-tier bunks in 80-man cells.

Prisoners are forced to eat with their hands as cutlery is banned and inmates can only leave their cells for 30 minutes a day. With only artificial light, so far those who have entered haven’t seen daylight since and no one sleeps.

Pictures released by the Government of El Salvador show new arrivals being processed after being transported by bus, wearing nothing but a pair of cotton shorts.

Although it’s now termed “one of the safest countries” by its leaders, Bukele’s El Salvador has split opinion. “It’s been impossible for the families of detainees to speak to authorities,” human rights lawyer Alejandro Diaz Gomez. “It’s a crime against humanity.”