The Minister of Justice and Security of El Salvador, Gustavo Villatoro, and his Argentine counterpart, Patricia Bullrich, signed a cooperation agreement on Tuesday to strengthen the fight against organized crime, the Salvadoran presidential office reported.
The agreement “represents an alliance and a commitment between both nations to join efforts in favor of the prevention of violence and firmly confront organized crime groups,” indicated the Presidential House of El Salvador.
The pact occurs within the framework of the official visit of a delegation from Argentina to learn about the President Nayib Bukele’s security model. Prior to signing the agreement, Villatoro presented to the Argentine delegation the process that has been developing as part of Bukele’s strategy since he took office in June 2019.
The agreement establishes the creation of specialized analysis spaces to design strategies and develop innovative tools that allow us to effectively combat criminal groups.
After a meeting with Bukele, Bullrich congratulated the Salvadoran president for his progress in security and “for having returned peace and tranquility to Salvadoran families,” he wrote on the social network X.
“One heard about El Salvador nothing but deaths, destruction, what the gangs were, the territorial domination they had, the way they killed families, the way they extorted them, the way they had the country under their control. yoke,” Bullrich said.
Bullrich and the Argentine delegation visited on Sunday the maximum security prison where thousands of gang members are confined and met with officials from the Salvadoran government’s security cabinet.
He also held a meeting with the Minister of National Defense, Vice Admiral René Francis Merino Monroy, to learn about the role that the armed forces have played in the development of the Territorial Control Plan with which they have combated the criminal gangs that operated in the country. .
Bullrich wants to assimilate the strategies that Bukele implemented to reduce the rates of violence in El Salvador, said the Argentine Ministry of Security in a statement prior to the visit to the Central American nation.
“Focusing on public security, mainly in the city of Rosario (Santa Fe), the minister is interested in the entire structure that allowed crime to be drastically reduced in El Salvador, which until a long time ago was a country dominated by police violence. maras,” adds the statement.
In 2015, El Salvador was considered one of the most violent countries in the world, with 6,656 homicides per year, and a rate of 106 violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.
The country ended 2023 with 214 murders, including 38 alleged gang members killed in alleged confrontations with police or military. So far this year, the police have recorded 64 homicides, which include the deaths of four alleged criminals.
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