The administration of President Nayib Bukele has shown that it is possible to eradicate the gangs, as analyst Misael Rivas considered yesterday, which has given the government empowerment in matters of security. That positions the president as a benchmark on a Latin American scale.

“The current government has an empowerment approach to security issues. Before it was known as social violence, and they looked at it as something that could not be controlled,” the criminologist also mentioned in the interview with A:M, on Channel 10.

Rivas made a comparison because, while the current government’s security strategy returned control of the territories to the state, in the past the gangs fully controlled up to 50 municipalities without the authorities at the time doing anything.

“Gangs dominated 56 municipalities in El Salvador during 2010, 2014, and 2015. Now we are seeing how the country has recovered,” recalled the analyst.

In his opinion, part of the empowerment obtained by the Executive in terms of security is reflected in the fact that both the agents of the National Civil Police (PNC) and the members of the Armed Forces feel supported by their headquarters when carrying out their work in public safety.

«The Armed Forces did not have the support because the bosses were not interested. In El Salvador, there are many security companies, and we have 14 departments. Visibly we know what the business was here,” Rivas explained.

One aspect that he highlighted is that the PNC now has a much more effective intelligence service, which makes it possible to more forcefully dismantle criminal structures since highly relevant information is intercepted.