El Salvador's Bukele re-elected as president in landslide win

[crimsonaudio]

It worries me, because my daughter and her partner live there...

Sounds bad. What's her experience?

 

[TIDE-HSV]

Sounds bad. What's her experience?

She's always downplayed any danger to them personally...

 

[crimsonaudio]

She's always downplayed any danger to them personally...

Well, it's probably a lot like Memphis where there are real hot spots, but if you avoid those you're relatively safe.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

Well, it's probably a lot like Memphis where there are real hot spots, but if you avoid those you're relatively safe.

She says their neighborhood is safe from violent crime, but they do have car break-ins and converter thefts. They keep Mandy's car in their locked garage and her Bolt is on the street, but, of course, doesn't have a converter. For that matter, we do have periodic car break-ins here on Monte Sano, about the most isolated neighborhood in the city...

 

[4Q Basket Case]

We've been concentrating on murders -- obviously the most violent crime -- but there are other crimes as well. Rape, robbery, assault, auto theft & break-in, home invasion, etc. And if they don't end in murder, they don't show up in the numbers above.

About 18 months ago, I had occasion to have to drive through the city of San Francisco. Went through several neighborhoods ranging from sketchy to clearly affluent. It was amazing to see lots of parked cars with trunks and doors wide open. I asked about it, and the reason is that the owners were advertising that there was nothing in the car, and essentially begging thieves not to smash windows and do other damage.

Point of that being, violent crime is clearly the worst. But property crimes also figure significantly into the population's perception of safety.

 

[TexasBama]

I googled some crime data on neighborhoods recently. Years back, Sunnyside, which is about four miles due south of the UH campus, was near or at the top of the worst neighborhoods in the US for crime. And 3rd Ward, which abuts the UH campus, was on this list. Now neither show up, and 3rd Ward is in the midst of gentrification. I still wouldn’t drive through Sunnyside, but apparently HPD is doing something right.
I’ve also looked at some comparative numbers on police per capita. The cleanest comparison is Houston to LA. Houston is understaffed in that comparison, but I’m hoping our new mayor makes some strides there.

 

[TexasBama]

WRT El Salvador, what I’ve read is that the president pretty much rounded up all the MS13 guys and put them in the pen. Thus his popularity, because those guys are pretty much vicious dogs.

 

[TexasBama]

Thanks for the perspective.

The number I'd been hearing for San Francisco was the percentage increase...which does look nasty. But it's largely a function of the low beginning number. As in, if a murder rate of 7.2 per 100,000 population represents a 32% increase, the rate at the base date was about 5.5 -- among the lowest of the major cities listed. I do, however, wonder what the number would be if Oakland were included in the MSA.

Likewise, the fact that Detroit showed a decrease of 1.2% looks like improvement. Small, but improvement. Until you notice that it's on a base of 49.1 -- abominable.

Then you see New Orleans. I have no words on that one.

Houston is about 15 per 100k. Take out a couple of neighborhoods that probably goes to single digits

 

[crimsonaudio]

Block by block... it'll take a little while, but it'll turn out beautiful.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2037335155853942980

 

[crimsonaudio]

President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele releases video showing the transformation of his country. Since Bukele took office:- Homicides plunged from 2,398 in 2019 to just 114 homicides in 2024.- Murder rate is now 1.9 per 100,000 people, a historic low.- In 2022, Bukele declared a state of exception and made over 85,000 arrests.“ Everything in life has a cost and the cost of being called authoritarian is too small to bother me much,” he once said.'

https://twitter.com/x/status/2037543347355857067

 

[Crimson1967]

The El Salvador prison does not look like fun.

 

[crimsonaudio]

In 2025, El Salvador became the safest country in the Western Hemisphere…You can just remove violent people from society and make life better for everyone else.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2037548915730334061

 

[crimsonaudio]

The El Salvador prison does not look like fun.

Prison should not be fun - it should be a place that makes one want to change behavior(s) in order to avoid going back.

 

[Crimson1967]

Prison should not be fun - it should be a place that makes one want to change behavior(s) in order to avoid going back.

I don’t think prisons should be like a resort vacation. But that prison in El Salvador seems beyond the pale. They are packed in a cell 24 hours a day. The bunk beds and like shelves in a warehouse with 3-4 people sharing one “bed”. I don’t even want to think about the bathroom facilities.

Yes, the gangs were horrible people and I am glad the country is safer. But the prison looks like a torture chamber. I don’t feel sorry for them but I would hate to be convicted of something I didn’t do there.