El Salvador records no murders on final day of July
Posted August 1, 2019 12:36 pm.
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — El Salvador’s new president is touting a rare day without murders in the small but violent Central American nation.
President Nayib Bukele said Thursday that there was not a single murder the previous day.
Criminologist Ricardo Sosa says that that has only occurred eight times since 2000. He says July, Bukele’s second month in office, saw an average of five murders per day.
The Attorney General’s Office and the morgue also confirmed there were no murders on Wednesday.
Justice Minister Rogelio Rivas says there were 154 murders in July, down from 291 during the same month last year.
Sosa says there are signs that Bukele’s efforts against gang violence are working, but that the challenge will be sustaining the results.
The Associated Press
