Nayib Bukele's recipe against gangs that failed in Honduras: We're safer because Mara Salvatrucha rules here'

"Now we're safer because Mara Salvatrucha [MS-13] rules here. Now you can walk around here peacefully. You don't see gang members anymore. Now there are surveillance cameras in the neighborhoods. They have everything under control from a command center, but in a more professional way."

"What we pay is no longer called extortion. It's called use of facilities. If you use the taxi stand, you have to pay the gang. If you don't use it, you don't pay. It's that simple."

"Honduras has historically been one of the most murderous countries in Latin America, and the Rivera Hernandez neighborhood in San Pedro Sula is considered the most telling example of that violence. In 2014, the city reached a rate of 140 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, 14 times what the World Health Organization considers an epidemic."

Rivera Hernandez neighborhood in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, has experienced a dramatic decline in homicides from 140 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2014 to 25 in the last year. This reduction coincides with MS-13 gang consolidation and professionalization of their operations, including surveillance systems and command centers. Residents report increased safety despite gang control, with extortion rebranded as 'use of facilities' fees. The government's 2022 state of emergency, modeled after El Salvador's approach, failed to target gang leadership or achieve meaningful results, leaving territorial gang control as the de facto security mechanism.

Read at english.elpais.com