President Trump’s crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital netted dramatic early results: an historic lapse in murders and a marked fall in carjackings. But he’s not the only world leader pressing a tough on crime approach to restore law and order in troubled cities. In El Salvador, Nayib Bukele was the youngest elected president in the Western Hemisphere when he first took office. Since then, he’s led the small Central American nation through a stunning transformation. Today we report from El Salvador, where other nations are taking note.

The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.

Not all that long ago, this was arguably the most dangerous neighborhood in El Salvador, ruled by gangs who terrorized residents and shop owners like Xiomara Cardona.

Xiomara Cardona (as translated): “Right now is a lot better because the government is doing really good with their job. Got security 24 hours a day. Now we have freedom to walk all along our own neighborhood. Commerce has increased, so we are free.”

El Salvador’s rapid transformation is nothing short of extraordinary.

Independent from Spain since 1821, El Salvador faced a brutal civil war and gang crisis in the 80s and 90s. By the 2000s, it was a central base for MS-13 with gangs controlling neighborhoods, extorting businesses, and driving the murder rate to the worst in the world.

Then in 2019, Salvadorans took the first step to reclaim their country. They elected 37-year-old Nayib Bukele as president.

The president asked Rene Merino Monroy to head up the military as defense minister and tasked him with something that had never been done before.

Sharyl: “I noticed these military vehicles and a lot of military out today here.”

Rene Merino Monroy: “Yeah.”

Soldiers deployed alongside police to round up tens of thousands of alleged gang members and other criminals.

Sharyl: “What kind of difference has that made that the military has a stepped up all?”

Merino Monroy: “Because, for example, if the police have 20,000 people, so you can have 20,000 police in the street. But if you have 20,000 police plus 20 militaries, you have 40,000 guys in the street. So that is the difference.”

The difference has led to remarkable success.

Armed military patrols continue today allowing us on this day to stroll safely in neighborhood once riddled by violence.

Merino Monroy: “This is San Bartolo area. It was in the past one of the most dangerous places in El Salvador because [of]the gangs member. So, but right now you can see the people moving freely. In the past was totally difficult for the people moving here.”

Sharyl: “We wouldn’t be walking around safely?”

Merino Monroy: “No, it was impossible. It was impossible to move freely here for, because they had the control, the total control of the city. They decide everything. If you want to, for example, if you are selling some, some wood and you want to go here, to go into here, you have to request permission to the bad guys.”

Sharyl: “From the gangs?”

Merino Monroy: “Yeah. And they say yes or not, or if they wanted to kill you, they killed you. And, and that’s it. So now it’s totally different.”

The numbers punctuate the dramatic shift.

In 2015, El Salvador recorded 6,656 homicides earning the title ‘Murder Capital of the World.’ But after the mass arrests, the numbers plummeted. Seven months into this year there had been about 40 murders. The homicide rate dropped from more than 106 per 100,000 people to below 1 per 100,000 projected for 2025.

President Nayib Bukele (X video, July 22) (as translated): “We have gone from literally being the most dangerous country in the world to being the safest country in the entire Western hemisphere.”

Critics say this safety comes at a cost. To achieve security, President Bukele and legislators maintain a state of emergency allowing arrests without warrants, indefinite detentions, and suspending some other constitutional protections.

Luis Enrique Amaya is an expert on Salvadoran gangs and warns of threats to democracy.

Sharyl: “With things being safer now, what new problems do you foresee when it comes to gang development, or what the government has done in cracking down on gangs?”

Amaya: “For me the main problems are the costs of these achievements, the government had to do a lot of things that to me are risky. The human rights issue, the due process issue, the transparency issue. So we don’t have access to a lot of public information, official information. I think the system of checks and balances are very, is very weak right now. So I think this is a lot of risks in this situation.”

Claudia Ortiz: “We are better than this. We can do it better than this.”

Claudia Ortiz is a leading voice of the opposition in El Salvador.

Sharyl: “You’re not arguing that things are worse now for the average citizen, or are you, than they were when gangs were controlling neighborhoods and merchants couldn’t put their goods out without risking their lives or having to pay a gang member. Do you think overall things are worse now than those times?”

Ortiz: “It’s different. You know, it’s because time has advanced at this point. We should been enjoying more peace, and at the same time more progress in the economic field and social field. We’ve been in an emergency status for 40 months, we need to advance to another stage because the main crisis of violence has been resolved, right? But we are not addressing the structural causes of violence, corruption, organized crime and the lack of economic growth and development.”

Bukele supporters — the majority of Salvadorans — argue the real human rights abuses and threats to democracy occurred under gang rule.

After six years, President Bukele enjoys approval ratings above 90%, giving him the highest domestic approval of any head of state in the world.

Other countries grappling with crime are studying El Salvador’s model.

Merino Monroy: “We right now are the example for other countries. For Ecuador, for example, for Dominican Republic, Argentina, also, even some Mexicans, they say ‘We want to have a president like Mr. Bukele here,’ because they understand the people in other countries understand that if you can, if you want to do, you can do it.”

While critics highlight concerns, most Salvadorans today celebrate their democratically elected leaders for restoring freedom, viewing the prior era’s unchecked violence as the true democratic failure.

Cardona (as translated): “Today, now we live in freedom in our own country. I’m really happy that right now I can open up my business and then work a lot. So my daughters can finish their studies.”

Sharyl (on-camera): “About a month ago, El Salvador’s legislature lifted the constitutional ban on the president serving consecutive terms. It will allow Bukele to run again in 2027. On an upcoming edition of Full Measure, we’ll report on his radical reform of El Salvador’s prison system, which some are looking to as a model.”

Watch video here.