El Salvador has claimed to have gone 365 days without a murder following a major clampdown on gangs which has resulted in thousands being landed in mega-prisons.
But critics have cast doubt on the announcement by president Nayib Bukele who failed to provide independently verified figures.
“We ended May 10, 2023, with zero murders at a national level. With that, it has been 365 [days] without a murder, an entire year,” Mr Bukele, a former nightclub owner, said on Twitter.
The figures were “clarified” by a member of his communications team, who said they represent “the total number of days without murders since 2019”.
The 41-year-old president declared a “war on crime” in March last year, vowing to bring peace to one of the world’s most violent countries.
Declaring a “state of exception” to lower the murder rate, he flooded the country of 6.5 million people with police and rounded up more than 68,000 suspected gang members.
Since February thousands of the prisoners, who were arrested without a warrant, have been corralled in a mega-jails capable of holding 40,000 inmates.
A presidential spokesman added: “El Salvador has gone from being the most violent country in the world to the most secure in Latin America”.
In 2019 El Salvador recorded a murder rate of 38 per 100,000 inhabitants.
By last year it claimed the figure had plummeted to just eight in 100,000 and according to opinion polls, the crackdown is supported by 92 per cent of voters.
The fall in crime has come at some cost. Dystopian images of shaven-headed inmates crammed together like sardines have shocked global opinion.
There has also been condemnation from human rights groups, including the United Nations.
Miguel Montenegro, the coordinator for the nongovernmental Human Rights Commission, told AFP that if Mr Bukele’s claims “really were a totally credible piece of news, it would be praiseworthy.”
And the US State Department appears less than convinced by the crackdown.
Advising against travel to the country in March, it told US nationals: “Though there has been a significant reduction in gang-related activity, violent crime remains a concern throughout significant portions of the country.”
It added that the state of exception had led to the suspension of constitutional rights and that even US citizens had been detained “in an arbitrary manner”.
The UK Foreign Office added: “Despite recent progress made in security, the risks of both petty and violent crime remain.”
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