Publications
El Salvador: Tips on Managing Crime and Avoiding Populism — or is it the other way round?
Published 24 July 2018
El Salvador is adjudged the world’s most violent country, with a rate of 81 murders per 100,000 people in 2016 – more than three times that of Mexico, for example. San Salvador rivals Venezuela’s Caracas as the most murderous city at 137/100,000. The country is trapped in a vicious cycle of populism and insecurity.
Because there is no security, there is little investment, no growth, few jobs, insufficient resources for security and thus an increase in insecurity. And the populism of the ruling FMLN has offered few answers, only greater problems. In this lie lessons for African states treading a populist path.
