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“Trigger-Happy” Laws Expand in Latin America

By Gustavo González
Violence involving organized crime has made Latin America the most dangerous region in the world and has helped paved the way for a repressive kind of populism with a dangerous future, whose most visible symbol is Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador.

Salvadoran Government So Far Unscathed by US Legal Case Alleging Secret Pact with Gangs

By Edgardo Ayala
Despite serious allegations by the US justice system that two officials of the government of Nayib Bukele reached a secret agreement with the MS-13 gang to keep the homicide rate low, the Salvadoran president seems to have escaped unscathed for now, without political costs.

Salvadoran President’s Secrecy about New Mega-Prison – a Harbinger of Corruption

By Edgardo Ayala
The construction of a mega-prison, in which the government of El Salvador intends to imprison some 40,000 gang members, is in line with President Nayib Bukele’s tendency to hide public information on public projects, classifying them as "reserved."

Gangs and Government Put Their Cards on the Table in El Salvador

By Edgardo Ayala
The two main youth gangs in El Salvador and the government have exchanged the main points they would like to discuss in talks aimed at bringing to an end to two decades of spiraling criminal violence. But the media, legislators and the public at large remain hostile to the possible start of negotiations.
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