President Nayib Bukele has revealed alarming data showing that for years, thousands of homicides in El Salvador were deliberately concealed as disappearances by the governments led by the FMLN and ARENA. According to a recent post shared by the President, criminal gangs and elements within the State manipulated official figures, hiding mass killings through clandestine graves.
“During years, thousands of homicides were hidden as disappearances,” Bukele wrote. “Gangs and the State covered up the numbers using clandestine graves.”
The table he shared displays a significant drop in both homicides and disappearances from 2015 to June 2025. In 2015 alone, the country recorded 6,656 homicides and 1,880 disappearances. By 2024, those figures had dropped dramatically to 114 homicides and 95 disappearances. As of June 18, 2025, only 38 homicides and 68 disappearances have been reported.
“Today, with fewer than 100 disappearances a year (compared to over 1,500 before), there is no doubt: a systematic massacre was hidden alongside the one we already knew,” Bukele added. “The murders committed by gangs were far more than we believed. Now comes the challenge of finding all those bodies.”
In a previous post, Bukele responded to a report from the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) by stating that “120,000 deaths were caused by gangs in El Salvador. But if we add the disappeared, most of whom were murdered, the number exceeds 200,000 homicides in a population of just 6 million.”
This response came after the FGR announced the discovery of a new clandestine cemetery used by the MS gang between 2010 and 2022. The site, located in the Monte León subdivision and the San Jorge estate in El Botoncillal, La Libertad, is currently being excavated. Authorities have begun the exhumation of 11 bodies—eight men and three women—who were buried with the intent to conceal their deaths permanently.
Among the victims was a soldier kidnapped in 2020 in Las Delicias. He was taken to a rural area on the slopes of the San Salvador volcano, where he was interrogated, tortured, and murdered.
So far, 133 gang members from the Delicias Locos Salvatruchos clique have been charged in connection with these crimes.
The revelations shed light on the horrifying scale of gang violence in the country and the deliberate efforts to erase evidence of mass killings. As President Bukele emphasized, the next challenge lies not only in capturing those responsible, but also in recovering and honoring the countless victims buried in silence.