The Bukele Model: How El Salvador's crackdown reshaped Latin America

El Salvador was once one of the most dangerous countries on Earth, with powerful gangs controlling entire neighbourhoods. Since President Nayib Bukele declared a state of exception in 2022, homicides have plummeted, and gang structures have been dismantled. But more than 90,000 people, roughly 1.5% of the population, have been arrested, and rights groups say thousands of innocent people have been swept up in mass trials with no acquittals on record.

Al Jazeera's Julia Galiano travels to El Salvador and Colombia to examine the human cost of the "Bukele model," and why hardline leaders across Latin America — from Ecuador to Honduras, Peru to Colombia — are now racing to copy it.

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