El Salvador’s Government announced a historic milestone in public safety: zero impunity for homicides in 2025, with a 100% effectiveness rate in resolving cases. Officials from the Security Cabinet emphasized that this achievement reflects not only swift resolutions of homicides but also rapid responses to other crimes reported nationwide.
Minister of Justice and Security Gustavo Villatoro explained that the success is the result of integrating security with justice, a strategy that dismantled decades of gang dominance in communities. “What the president is implementing is a security strategy that combines a justice component. The profitability of crime has always been impunity, and by reducing it to zero, we achieve a direct positive impact on the territory,” Villatoro stated.
At the close of 2024, the effectiveness rate for homicide cases stood at 98.6%. In 2025, for the 114 homicides registered so far, authorities have achieved 100% effectiveness—an unprecedented result that officials say is only possible through the decisive leadership of President Nayib Bukele and the integration of institutions aligned with his vision.
Defense Minister René Francis Merino Monroy also highlighted that El Salvador recently reached 1,000 days without homicides, a milestone that underscores how many lives have been saved thanks to the Territorial Control Plan and the state of emergency declared on March 27, 2022. Since then, more than 89,000 gang members have been imprisoned, further reducing crime and restoring peace in once-violent areas.
Government officials stressed that El Salvador no longer lives in an era of permissiveness, sending a clear message: every crime will be prosecuted, and justice will prevail.