Global recidivism rates range from 20% to 63%, depending on several factors, which means that when a prisoner is released from jail, he’s 20% to 63% likely to commit a similar crime. If that criminal is a murderer, rapist, or terrorist, even 1% is too much of a risk for a civil society to take. People intent on destroying or ending the lives of others do not deserve a chance to do it again. Their rights do not trump the rights of their potential victims.
In a place like El Salvador, where many of the murderers, rapists, and terrorists have an extra element behind their crimes — gang affiliation — it’s even more important that these people are no longer able to participate in society, so that the millions of people who do not commit crimes can live peacefully. When criminals are gang members or affiliated with organized crime, those recidivism numbers skyrocket.
Many on the left like to paint members of MS-13 and Barrio 18 — El Salvador’s most dominant gangs — as if they’re just kids in street gangs who can be rehabilitated. The reality is that these are terrorist groups. Members are willing to die or go to jail to prove their loyalty. For many, it has even become spiritual, a religion of sorts, and they feel that justifies their heinous crimes. I’ve written about this and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has spoken out on it numerous times, but many MS-13 members have Satanic ties and see murders as mere sacrifices to a higher being.
This is one reason why I balk at leftists in the media and human rights groups in the United States and Europe who constantly criticize Bukele for the way he turned El Salvador around. He used harsh tactics, but he had no other choice if he wanted to keep the innocent majority safe. At the time, the culture in El Salvador was not comparable to that of other countries. These groups are more like Hezbollah, Hamas, or the Taliban than garden variety criminals in much of the rest of the Western world. They were at war with the honest, hard-working Salvadoran citizens, and you don’t win wars without going hard against the enemy.
Related: In Bukele’s El Salvador, It’s Never Too Late to Follow Your Dreams
That’s why Bukele has one of the highest organic approval ratings of any world leader. The people who live there voted for this and want it. They enjoy being able to watch their kids play outside, to walk down streets without fear, to run their businesses without extortion, and to enjoy the benefits of tourism and foreign investments that these improvements have attracted.
They don’t need the approval of international busybodies.
And now, their government is taking the crackdown on crime a step further to ensure that these people can never terrorize their nation again. Earlier this week, El Salvador’s Congress voted 59 to 1 to approve constitutional reforms that would make those committing murder, rape, or acts of terrorism subject to a lifetime jail sentence. Even members of the opposition voted in favor of it, and it should be ratified next week. Article 27 of the country’s Constitution previously prevented any single criminal from serving more than 60 years in prison.
Sounds like a good thing to me. There are some people in this world who should never see the light of day again.
But the media reports it all with little caveats and leftist dog whistles. For example, the Associated Press doesn’t just tell you the news. It adds these phrases — like “in nation that has imprisoned 1% of population” and “emboldened by Bukele’s alliance with U.S. President Donald Trump” — that literally have nothing to do with their government’s recent decisions.
As for the so-called human rights groups that are suddenly in a panic, as Bukele has said countless times, where were they when these gang members were murdering babies and the elderly? When they were extorting business owners? When they were raping Salvadoran women and girls?
Where were they when they were kidnapping and holding people ransom? Where were they when they were seizing people’s homes and turning them into gang headquarters? Where were they when they were attacking clergy and journalists for telling the truth about the gangs? Where were they when they were killing bus drivers for taking the wrong routes? Where were they when they were using fire and machetes to torture and disfigure their rivals? Where were they when they were trafficking drugs and humans into other countries? Where were they when they were recruiting eight-year-old little boys into a life of hell?
“It’s amusing to see all the NGOs, think tanks, media outlets, and Soros-funded journalists attacking in unison and in an obviously coordinated manner,” Bukele posted on social media last week. “I’d be worried if it weren’t this way. It means we’re on the right track. Thank God.”
On the right track, indeed. Over the past year, I’ve covered elections in numerous countries across the Western Hemisphere, and we’ve watched as almost every single one has voted for a change. Crime and gang and cartel activity have largely been the driving factors for that. “We want our own Bukele,” is a phrase heard in towns from Mexico to Chile. People are tired of living their lives tip-toeing around criminals who enjoy impunity because their governments are too weak — or too corrupt and embedded with the criminal elements — to do anything about it. With any luck, more will follow.
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