An <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/illegal-immigration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">illegal alien</a> from Central America was arrested this week in connection with the murder of 2-year-old Jeremy Poou Caceres in Maryland.
The Prince George’s County Police Department’s Homicide Unit arrested 25-year-old Nilson Noel Trejo-Granados in connection with the murder earlier this month at Langley Park.
The toddler and his mother were shot as two groups of males opened fire on each other. The toddler died a short time later while the mother is expected to make a full recovery.
Four other individuals have been arrested in connection with the murder, including two minors — ages 15 and 16 — who were not named due to their age, 33-year-old Israel Fuentes, Jr., and 28-year-old Johnny Alejandro Turcios.
Trejo-Granados is charged with murder-first degree, murder-second degree, two counts of assault first degree, assault second degree, attempted first degree murder, and attempted second degree murder.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement that Trejo-Granados is an illegal alien from El Salvador and that he had been ordered to be deported from the U.S. for well over a year, but Democrat sanctuary cities allowed him to remain loose on America&#8217;s streets.
&#8220;On Nov. 7, 2022, a Department of Justice immigration judge in Newark, New Jersey ordered Trejo-Granados removal from the United States,&#8221; ICE said. &#8220;The Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) arrested Trejo-Granados March 21, 2023, and charged him with theft: $100 to under $1,500. Those charges remain pending. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged an Immigration Detainer on Trejo-Granados with the Montgomery County Detention Center (MCDC) March 22, 2023; however, MCDC refused to honor the detainer and Trejo-Granados was released by MCDC, March 27, 2023.&#8221;
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1700760801843000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
&#8220;MCPD again arrested Trejo-Granados Sept. 26, 2023, and charged him with theft less than $100 and attempt obstructing and hindering,&#8221; the statement continued. &#8220;ICE lodged an Immigration Detainer with the MCDC on Trejo-Granados, Sept. 27, 2023; however, MCDC refused to honor the detainer and released Trejo- Granados from custody Oct. 12, 2023.&#8221;
ICE said that Trejo-Granados was arrested late last week in connection with the murder of the toddler and that ICE&#8217;s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) has once again filed a detainer request for the suspect, this time with Prince George&#8217;s County Detention Center in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Fifth suspect in custody in connection with toddler’s murder. <a href="https://t.co/TWj1SbmQ58">https://t.co/TWj1SbmQ58</a> <a href="https://t.co/YnH80ehTsq">pic.twitter.com/YnH80ehTsq</a>
&mdash; PGPDNEWS (@PGPDNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/PGPDNews/status/1762215508714152338?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The alleged crime is just the latest example of the illegal alien crime wave that has <a href="https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/increased-illegal-immigration-brings-increased-crime-almost-23-federal">surged</a> across the U.S. under President Joe Biden. Under Biden, more than 7.2 million illegal aliens — a number <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/illegal-immigrants-biden-admin-amount-greater-population-36-states">greater than</a> the population of 36 U.S. states — have entered into the U.S. due to his policies. Biden’s border crisis has now become the <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4422273-immigration-overtakes-inflation-top-voter-concern-poll/">top overall</a> issue for voters heading into this fall’s general election rematch between Biden and former President Donald Trump. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/cbp-enforcement-statistics/criminal-noncitizen-statistics">reports</a> seeing a massive increase in the number of criminal illegal aliens encountered at the U.S. border under Biden.

TOPSHOT-YEMEN-PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-PROTEST

Illegal Alien Arrested For Allegedly Murdering Toddler

Crime

El Salvador

Illegal Immigration

Murder

U.S.

Displaced Palestinians at Egyptian Border

An Outrageous Betrayal On The Border

Alejandro Mayorkas

Joe Biden

Matt Walsh

Migrants

Opinion

Readers Pass

Southern Border

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the arrest of 26 illegal immigrant sexual predators during a three-day operation in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/los-angeles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Los Angeles</a> last week. 
The operation, carried out by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, <a href="https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ero-los-angeles-arrests-26-convicted-sexual-predators-local-2-day-operation#:~:text=%22The%20outcome%20of%20this%20operation,Los%20Angeles%20FOD%20Thomas%20Giles." target="_blank" rel="noopener">was conducted</a> from December 18-20. The crimes committed by the illegal immigrants included crimes against children by individuals from Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala. 
&#8220;The outcome of this operation exemplifies the professionalism, dedication and commitment of ERO Los Angeles officers to public safety,&#8221; said ERO Los Angeles FOD Thomas Giles. “Removing these individuals and the threats they represent from our communities is our mission, and we will continue to safely and effectively enforce the immigration laws of our nation.&#8221;
The arrests take place as illegal crossings at the border under President Joe Biden <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-serious-challenge-illegal-border-crossings-surge-in-november-to-record-high" target="_blank" rel="noopener">continue to set records</a>, including nearly 250,000 crossings in November. CBP numbers <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-releases-november-2023-monthly-update">released last week</a> show that they recorded 242,418 encounters last month, the highest November <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/12/22/news/242000-migrants-tried-to-cross-into-us-over-southern-border-in-november/">ever</a> and the third highest monthly total overall.
ICE highlighted three individuals taken into custody during the operation, including a 19-year-old from El Salvador convicted of felony sexual forcible oral copulation of a minor over 14 years old and battery by restraint
A 40-year-old from Mexico who was convicted for a felony lewd acts with a child and continuous sexual abuse was also picked up during the operation. A 35-year-old from Guatemala, convicted of felony child molestation in an inhabited dwelling, was also arrested by ICE for removal. 
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1703684399691000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0m2xSiGF1JK_f4B43pJkSz">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
ICE noted that in fiscal year 2022, it had arrested 46,396 foreign nationals with criminal history, including  individuals with 8,164 sex and sexual assault offenses. The other crimes included 21,531 assault offenses, 5,554 weapons offenses, 1,501 homicide-related offenses, and 1,114 kidnapping offenses.
Last month, 37-year-old Saulo Cardona Ferreira, an illegal immigrant from Brazil convicted of raping a child, was<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/illegal-immigrant-raped-a-five-year-old-in-brazil-ice-caught-him-in-marthas-vineyard" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> arrested</a> by ICE in Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.
“This undocumented Brazilian national represented a significant threat to the inhabitants of Martha’s Vineyard. He sexually assaulted a five-year-old child in his homeland and then ran from authorities when held accountable for his actions,” ICE said in a statement. 
Illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border have remained high in December, with reporters <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nbc-reporter-stunned-by-number-of-illegal-border-crossings-crowds-have-never-been-this-large-during-my-reporting">being stunned</a> at the number of people entering into the U.S. through Mexico.

VP Mike Pence Visits ICE Headquarters In Washington DC

ICE Arrests Over Two Dozen Illegal Immigrant Sexual Predators In Los Angeles

California

Guatemala

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Los Angeles

Mexico

Sex Crimes

There are so many news reports now on rampant crime in major cities that, at this point, you can&#8217;t be blamed if your eyes glaze over when you see them. There are only so many clips of thugs shoplifting, doing &#8220;street takeovers,&#8221; or shooting at cops that you can watch. At some point, even though it&#8217;s horrible, you get numb to it. But one recent report from CNN on property crime in San Francisco stands out. We highlighted part of this clip a couple of weeks ago on the show, but here it is in full context:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="CNN witnesses 3 alleged thefts in 30 minutes while reporting on shoplifting" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yr-kGYTNaxc?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
This Walgreens is supposedly hit by shoplifters more than any other Walgreens in the United States. People are walking in and out with merchandise at will. Shoplifters robbed the store three times while CNN was inside. As I said, you have seen portions of that clip when it went viral several weeks ago. But we never played the end of that segment. Here it is:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="CNN witnesses 3 alleged thefts in 30 minutes while reporting on shoplifting" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yr-kGYTNaxc?start=200&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
First, CNN trots out a city supervisor to inform you that the causes of all this shoplifting are &#8220;systemic.&#8221; It&#8217;s sort of like racism in that way. He&#8217;s implying there&#8217;s no way to solve it. But of course you should pay a lot of consultants and government agencies a ton of money to try to solve it anyway. That&#8217;s what every bureaucrat means when they talk about &#8220;systemic&#8221; problems. 
Then, the CNN reporter comes back. She says she&#8217;s providing some &#8220;important context.&#8221; What is that context? She says property crime in San Francisco is &#8220;lower&#8221; than before the pandemic. In other words, as bad as the footage you just saw might look, overall, the city is doing fine. The ice cream sandwiches might be locked away with chains, and people are so brazen about stealing that they&#8217;re doing it in front of news cameras. Still, the city is on the right trajectory. Everything is fine. Nothing to see here. That&#8217;s the message.
In the world of statistics, they have a few terms for this. One of them is &#8220;non-response bias.&#8221; Another is &#8220;measurement bias.&#8221; If you&#8217;re looking at a chart of reported property crimes, and it goes up and up until suddenly it goes down, then a couple of things are possible. The first possibility — the one CNN implies is happening — is that people are committing fewer property crimes. Somehow the criminals have decided on their own to stop doing crime, even though they know they can easily get away with it. They’ve decided to become law abiding citizens anyway. Their hearts have all grown three sizes, like the Grinch in Whoville. The other possibility is that people have simply stopped reporting property crimes because they know the police and the D.A. won&#8217;t do anything about them. 
Could that be happening in San Francisco? Despite the city&#8217;s property crime &#8220;statistics,&#8221; is it possible that property crime is increasing? Dick&#8217;s Sporting Goods just provided another data point to help us answer that question. Dick&#8217;s has locations all over the country. They just announced that property theft is costing them so much money that they&#8217;re now laying off employees. The company says that profits dropped 23% last quarter — a staggering amount — and they blame much of it on rampant shoplifting. 
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1211-tbd-member-exclusive">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
When you hear that property crime is going down, and then you see stories like this, you have to wonder whether the statistics give you an accurate picture. Especially when Dick’s is far from the only chain that has had to shut down locations and lay off employees because they keep losing so much merchandise to theft. It’s like when influenza cases went to zero during COVID. Is that because, as the experts said, influenza simply stopped spreading during the pandemic? That&#8217;s the comforting explanation, so it mainly went unchallenged. Most statistics from the government are like this. They&#8217;re technically correct but wildly misleading.
But one government statistic is very tough to fudge, no matter how hard politicians try. It&#8217;s the murder rate. The government can lie and say that shoplifting is down. But it&#8217;s challenging for them to lie about murders because murders leave dead bodies. People talk about them. Coroners have to be dispatched to the scene, and so on. Between 2019 and 2020, the homicide rate in the United States <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/06/health/us-homicide-rate-increase-nchs-study/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increased</a> by more than it did at any point in modern history. It went up by 30%. The following year, it <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/murder-homicide-rate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increased</a> again. Some of the country&#8217;s most prominent tourist destinations have become too dangerous for many people to visit. Last year, for example, New Orleans became the murder capital of the United States, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-orleans-closes-2022-sky-high-homicide-rate-decades-horrific" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recording</a> 52 homicides per 100,000 residents.
Browse news reports on the violent crime wave in this country, and invariably, you&#8217;ll hear the same excuses. They&#8217;ll <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/28/covid-murder-crime-rate-517226" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tell you</a> COVID is responsible for the murder rate. They&#8217;ll do what that San Francisco city supervisor did and blame &#8220;systemic&#8221; issues with policing. What they won&#8217;t do is tell you that, actually, a real and immediate solution to crime is available.
In El Salvador, under the leadership of Nayib Bukele, they&#8217;ve figured out the solution. In 2018 — the year before Bukele took office — El Salvador posted a murder rate of 51 per 100,000 people. By 2022, the murder rate in El Salvador had fallen to 7.8 per 100,000 people. This chart shows the magnitude of the decline. The murder rate was decreasing before Bukele took over, but he took it to an unprecedented low level:
<a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/696152/homicide-rate-in-el-salvador/" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" style="width: 100%; height: auto !important; max-width: 1000px; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;" src="https://www.statista.com/graphic/1/696152/homicide-rate-in-el-salvador.jpg" alt="Statistic: Homicide rate in El Salvador from 2014 to 2022 (in number of homicides per 100,000 inhabitants) | Statista" /></a> 
Statista 2023.
This is a homicide rate that&#8217;s lower than what you&#8217;ll find in several major American cities. These are not cooked numbers. You know that because Nayib Bukele is overwhelmingly popular in El Salvador. People know that murders are down. They know that they are safer in their communities. They don&#8217;t need the government to tell them about it.
El Salvador accomplished this massive reduction in homicides, if you can believe it, by doing something radical. They decided to start punishing criminals. Specifically, Bukele implemented something called the &#8220;Territorial Control Plan.&#8221; Phase one of that plan involved flooding high-crime areas with heavily armed police forces. Many criminals with gang affiliations — often indicated by their tattoos — went to prison. Officials <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-central-america-usa-gangs/in-el-salvador-arrested-gang-members-paraded-for-the-cameras-idUSKBN28902M" target="_blank" rel="noopener">paraded</a> them before the cameras in a humiliation ritual. This has been an integral part of El Salvador&#8217;s strategy for years. Just a few months ago, Bukele uploaded this video, which shows gang members in one of the super-prisons he&#8217;s constructed to house them:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Hoy en la madrugada, en un solo operativo, trasladamos a los primeros 2,000 pandilleros al Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT).
Esta será su nueva casa, donde vivirán por décadas, mezclados, sin poder hacerle más daño a la población.
Seguimos…<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GuerraContraPandillas?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GuerraContraPandillas</a> <a href="https://t.co/9VvsUBvoHC">pic.twitter.com/9VvsUBvoHC</a>
&mdash; Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) <a href="https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1629165213600849920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 24, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
El Salvador&#8217;s government has not relented in the past few years. In fact, this summer, El Salvador&#8217;s Congress approved new rules allowing the trial of up to 900 gang members simultaneously to expedite the otherwise slow-moving judicial process. 
In some publications, including the National Review and various Left-wing outlets, you&#8217;ll find alternative explanations for how Bukele lowered the murder rate so quickly. One popular theory is that all these harsh measures aren&#8217;t reducing crime. Instead, the theory goes, Bukele struck a secret deal with the gangs that convinced them to stop committing crimes. There&#8217;s some truth to that. Bukele did, indeed, try to negotiate a truce with MS-13 and other gangs. But as CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/15/americas/el-salvador-war-on-gangs-bukele-intl-latam/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> last year, citing an expert in Central American affairs, &#8220;There is some consensus among security watchers that Bukele&#8217;s truce with the gangs fell apart &#8216;in late March (2022) which prompted the MS-16 to do the killing spree to pressure the government to give concessions,&#8217; said Breda&#8221;
So, Bukele&#8217;s latest crackdown followed the breakdown in negotiations. And still, violent crime remains low. The crackdown has saved lives. Other Central American leaders are now looking to model El Salvador&#8217;s approach. There&#8217;s no question about any of this.
The only remaining question is whether saving these lives, and restoring order to society, and making communities livable again, is worth making a few sacrifices. Most notably, is it worth sacrificing some of what we in the modern western world consider to be the “humane” standards for imprisonment? 
In response to that question, the media has answered unanimously in the negative. The Sun, for example, just published a lengthy <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/23605360/el-salvador-mega-prison-12000-gangsters-crammed-like-sardines/amp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">piece</a> lamenting the conditions in El Salvador&#8217;s prisons. Inmates are crammed together like &#8220;sardines,&#8221; the Sun says. &#8220;In each 100 square-meter cell, around 75 crammed inmates sleep on metal cabins and are forced to share just two toilets and two sinks.” Several other outlets have run similar stories in recent days. Here&#8217;s the BBC for example:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Inside El Salvador’s secretive mega-jail - BBC News" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PLWQO-RpHxw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
So this prison does not live up to the standards of the Red Cross, or the UN, or any western human rights watchdog group. It’s very, very uncomfortable to be in prison in El Salvador right now. So uncomfortable, in fact, that it might even make you think twice about joining a gang to begin with. Which is obviously the point. 
Now, with that said, we hear from someone in that clip who claims that at least one of the inmates has no connection to gangs. He is an innocent man caught up in the crackdown. We have no way of assessing whether that story is true, obviously. But, if we&#8217;re being honest, we probably can assume that some nonviolent people have been caught unwittingly in the net. Some of them may be innocent. Anytime the government assumes emergency powers and arrests more than 70,000 people without ensuring their due process rights, that&#8217;s bound to happen. And yes, it&#8217;s almost certainly true that many of these inmates live in conditions that would make Amnesty International extremely squeamish. There’s no reason to paper over that.
But that&#8217;s not where the discussion ends, or where it should end. The question that follows is a simple one, although it&#8217;s rarely discussed. The question is this: Would you rather have a safe society where a few innocent people are imprisoned? Or would you rather have a very dangerous society where only a few guilty people are imprisoned? Centuries ago, Ben Franklin answered a version of that question. &#8220;It&#8217;s better for a hundred guilty persons to escape than one innocent person to suffer,&#8221; he said. We hear people repeat this mantra, unthinkingly, all the time. 
But Ben Franklin didn&#8217;t address what happens when all those guilty people get out of prison and make it impossible for innocent people to live their lives. What happens when allowing &#8220;guilty persons to escape&#8221; means that innocent people can&#8217;t start profitable businesses, use the subways, go to the store, walk down the street, or guarantee the safety of their children in schools? What happens when letting the guilty go free means letting them randomly assault elderly or carjack women at the stoplight or execute  gas station cashiers for the few dollars in the cash registers? That&#8217;s unfolding now in major cities in this country. It&#8217;s happening so often that CNN is capturing it on camera unintentionally. This is not the high-trust society that existed in the 19th century.
When Barack Obama was in office, he made a habit of calling difficult decisions, &#8220;false choices.&#8221; He said we should, for example, reject the, &#8220;false choice between our security and our ideals.&#8221; But the truth is that there are hard choices to be made when weighing our security against our ideals. As Richard Hanania pointed out recently on his <a href="https://www.richardhanania.com/p/the-invisible-graveyard-of-crime?utm_source=profile&amp;utm_medium=reader2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Substack,</a> sometimes a slavish devotion to &#8220;ideals&#8221; gets many people killed. It ruins livelihoods. No one wants to talk about that. But it&#8217;s true. And as more criminals act with total impunity, it&#8217;s getting hard to ignore. Besides, nobody can claim that they really have zero tolerance for innocent people going to prison, because the only way to bring that number down to zero is to have no prisons at all. If you have any kind of prison system, there is going to be that kind of unintended consequence regardless. We all accept that. We have to, or we cannot have a civilization.
But we are currently in the process of losing our civilization, and it’s in part because modern western people have a totally upside down view of these kinds of trade offs. There will be trade offs either way. You cannot get around it. Either you emphasize justice, social order, and punishing criminals — and deal with the collateral damage that comes with this harsher and more brutal approach — or you emphasize tolerance, acceptance, “rehabilitation,” forgiveness — and deal with the collateral damage that comes with that. You will get the collateral damage either way. In the former case, it means you will have a safer and more orderly society where people can live their lives and your children can walk outside without fear, but criminals will be made very uncomfortable, and will be treated in ways that are sometimes quite ugly. In the latter case, criminals will be more comfortable and prison will not be such an ugly place, but your communities will be unlivable cesspools. As I’ve said before, there will be ugliness in society no matter what. You can choose to contain it in prisons, or you can let it loose on the streets. You will have it — the ugliness — whether you like it or not. The question is where do you want it? In prison or outside your front door?
El Salvador&#8217;s solution is not ideal. You would prefer it if your country didn’t need to have super-prisons with tens of thousands of violent gangsters. Nobody would call that an ideal situation, certainly not Nayib Bukele. At a certain point, though, it becomes necessary, because the alternative is even worse. If our leaders don&#8217;t have the stomach to punish criminals now, then down the line, they&#8217;ll be replaced by people who do. That&#8217;s the lesson of El Salvador. We can either learn from it, or we can keep repeating the same mistakes. The choice is ours.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>

Police Inspects Prison To Control Gang Members

We Need To Solve Our Violent Crime Epidemic The El Salvador Way

Prison

San Francisco

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/el-salvador">El Salvador</a>&#8216;s crackdown on violent gangs, which has reduced the country&#8217;s murder rate by over half is problematic actually, according to The Guardian.
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/02/the-guardian-view-on-el-salvadors-crackdown-a-short-term-high-cost-fix">The Guardian</a> published an editorial on Sunday criticizing El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele for his unsparing crackdown on violent organized crime, saying his methods do not address the root cause of the crime, among other issues, Townhall <a href="https://townhall.com/tipsheet/juliorosas/2023/07/06/the-guardian-takes-issue-with-el-salvador-reducing-murders-by-90-percent-n2625373" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a>.
The Guardian acknowledged that the crackdown has made the country safer, made Bukele more popular, and even made other Latin countries want to copy El Salvador and rid their streets of crime the same way.
&#8220;Even long-term critics acknowledge that extortion appears to have fallen sharply and that many in communities which lived in terror are enjoying the freedom to live their lives unmenaced. Yet others, many of them innocent of any crime, have paid a high price for a campaign that has trampled over basic rights: at least 153 people have died,&#8221; the editorial said.
The Guardian questioned Bukele&#8217;s power as well as the crackdown.
&#8220;Some may consider that a price worth paying. But even focusing purely on results, the story is more complicated than it appears,&#8221; The Guardian said, saying the murder rate has been falling since 2015.
El Salvador&#8217;s murder rate <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2023-01-03/el-salvador-murders-plummet-by-over-half-in-2022-amid-gang-crackdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plummeted</a> 56.8% in 2022, with authorities counting 496 homicides last year, down from 1,147 in 2021.
The editorial also said the crackdown does not address the underlying causes of organized crime.
&#8220;[Critics] also say the fall in crime is unsustainable – with good reason,&#8221; the editorial continued. &#8220;Previous hardline drives in the region have ended badly, followed by surges in offending. They do nothing to tackle underlying causes such as poverty and discrimination. They breed resentment and enable the recruitment and hardening of those not entrenched in gangs. Many of the criminal organisations that now terrorise parts of Latin America were born in prisons.&#8221;
The Guardian said one critic said the &#8220;real success story is not of the defeat of gangs, but the perpetuation of Mr Bukele’s power.&#8221;
&#8220;This is a man who dubbed himself &#8216;the coolest dictator in the world&#8217; in response to criticism,&#8221; The Guardian said.
&#8220;It is assumed that the popularity of his crackdown will sweep him back into power next year, even though multiple experts say that would violate the country’s constitution. What worries opponents, scholars, lawyers and civil society most is what he may do after that, with renewed authority,&#8221; the editorial said.
&#8220;&#8216;Bukelismo&#8217; should not be admired, or emulated,&#8221; The Guardian concluded.
Last month, Bukele encouraged journalists to speak to El Salvadorans on the street about the crackdown.
&#8220;Given that we have over 300 international media outlets in the country today, I want to ask you to go speak with people on the street, ask anyone you meet at random,&#8221; Bukele said in a video message to journalists posted to Twitter.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Mensaje a los periodistas / Message to journalists <a href="https://t.co/CigeHXXTKW">pic.twitter.com/CigeHXXTKW</a>
&mdash; Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) <a href="https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1673115754093506560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 25, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Here, in El Salvador, you are free to go anywhere you want. It&#8217;s totally safe,&#8221; Bukele said. &#8220;Nothing will happen to you. Nobody will stop you.&#8221;
El Salvador’s crackdown on violent criminals began last year when the government declared a state of emergency as the country battled a spike in murders.
The crackdown <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/el-salvadors-crime-crackdown-could-push-gangs-north-toward-u-s-expert-warns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has seen</a> thousands of suspected gang members locked up in the country’s new maximum security prison in central El Salvador, which can hold up to 40,000 inmates. Striking video footage showed lines of shirtless, heavily-tattooed prisoners with shaved heads running bent over and handcuffed as they were moved to the new prison facility.
“They are never going to return to the communities, the neighborhoods, the barrios, the cities of our beloved El Salvador,” <a href="https://apnews.com/article/el-salvador-gang-crackdown-prison-state-of-emergency-d95e1fcd5b806c38077ffb060c8c2f48" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declared</a> El Salvador’s justice minister Gustavo Villatoro at the time.

El Salvador Continues With Controversial Anti-Gang Plan

The Guardian Says El Salvador Reducing Murders By Over Half Is Problematic, Actually

gangs

Mainstream Media

MS-13 Gang

The Guardian

El Salvador&#8217;s ongoing crackdown on violent criminals, which has seen thousands of suspected gang members locked up in a new mega-prison, could prompt those still free to flee the embattled nation, experts warned.
Late last month, officials transferred thousands of prisoners to the country&#8217;s new maximum security prison in central El Salvador, the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca. On Wednesday, another 2,000 prisoners were <a href="https://apnews.com/article/el-salvador-gang-crackdown-prison-state-of-emergency-d95e1fcd5b806c38077ffb060c8c2f48" target="_blank" rel="noopener">locked</a> in the new prison, which can hold up to 40,000 inmates.
Striking video footage showed lines of shirtless, heavily-tattooed prisoners with shaved heads running bent over and handcuffed as they were moved to the new prison facility.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🇸🇻 | Nayib Bukele, con mano dura somete a miles de pandilleros y criminales que antes aterrorizaban a la población de El Salvador. ¿Estás de acuerdo con el trato que les da el Presidente Bukele a los delincuentes? <a href="https://t.co/iJQWWr5akt">pic.twitter.com/iJQWWr5akt</a>
&mdash; Eduardo Menoni (@eduardomenoni) <a href="https://twitter.com/eduardomenoni/status/1629813527891566594?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“They are never going to return to the communities, the neighborhoods, the barrios, the cities of our beloved El Salvador,” <a href="https://apnews.com/article/el-salvador-gang-crackdown-prison-state-of-emergency-d95e1fcd5b806c38077ffb060c8c2f48" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declared</a> El Salvador&#8217;s justice minister Gustavo Villatoro.
While more gang members behind bars is presumably a good thing for El Salvador, the crackdown has pushed the gangs north.
Some leaders of the infamously violent MS-13 gang have already fled to Mexico.
&#8220;We know that they are in Mexico, and that from there they are giving instructions in a cowardly manner,” the El Salvador justice minister <a href="https://ticotimes.net/2022/06/22/el-salvador-continues-crackdown-on-gangs-as-leaders-flee-to-mexico" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
Mexican authorities have also reported a larger presence of gang members associated with El Salvador like MS-13 and their rival, the 18th Street gang over the past year. At least three public transportation drivers in Mexico <a href="https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-el-salvador-mexico-guatemala-crime-bbebd03f8d7c28dc2d4e40faac5d1844" target="_blank" rel="noopener">were recently shot</a> to death by Salvadoran gangs, who have begun terrorizing and extorting the drivers.
“If we don’t do anything we’re going to be a little (El) Salvador,” one of the Mexican drivers <a href="https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-el-salvador-mexico-guatemala-crime-bbebd03f8d7c28dc2d4e40faac5d1844" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
El Salvador&#8217;s gang members and leaders are always trying to get into the U.S., warns Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies.
&#8220;They can make more money here and enjoy themselves more here, and there are many new places for them to set up shop for the gang, and many vulnerable youth to recruit,&#8221; Vaughan told The Daily Wire.
MS-13 <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/file/958481/download" target="_blank" rel="noopener">had</a> more than 10,000 members in the U.S in 2017.
If El Salvador&#8217;s war on gangs does drive gangs up to the southern U.S. border, they will be met by the Biden administration&#8217;s <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/border-patrol-chief-says-dhs-doesnt-have-operational-control-us-border" target="_blank" rel="noopener">overwhelmed</a> border forces and likely have little trouble sneaking into the country.
&#8220;Right now it&#8217;s not difficult for them to get in,&#8221; Vaughan said. &#8220;There is much less threat of border and interior enforcement than in prior years, especially if they have not been in the United States before.&#8221;
If gang members have previously been deported from the U.S., they have to keep a lower profile to avoid the risk of being criminally charged and removed again.
&#8220;It would be smarter for them to go to another country, but MS-13 members are not known for being smart,&#8221; Vaughan said.
In recent years, MS-13 operatives have engaged in human smuggling and served as protection for the drug cartels. Their new presence in Mexico could exacerbate an already dangerous environment.
&#8220;That is a tricky business, because they would have to have a relationship with a cartel, with all the risk and volatility that would bring, not to mention even more involvement in violence,&#8221; Vaughan said. &#8220;Adding MS-13 to the organized crime mix in Mexico is likely to make the situation even more volatile, because they are usually aggressive and brazen in trying to carve out a niche to operate and audacious in competing with other crime organizations.&#8221;
With <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/el-salvador-opens-40000-person-prison-arrests-soar-gang-crackdown-2023-02-01/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">nearly 2%</a> of the adult population incarcerated, El Salvador is one of the most crime-ridden countries in the world. The government crackdown on gangs — which Vaughan notes is a &#8220;regular cycle&#8221; in El Salvador — <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/30/el-salvador-bukele-state-emergency-homicides/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">began</a> a year ago when the government declared a state of emergency as the country battled a spike in murders. 
Since then, about 65,000 people have been arrested as part of the operation as the state of emergency was repeatedly extended. Human rights advocates have expressed concerns that the government&#8217;s approach veers authoritarian — about 57,000 of those arrested are still waiting to be formally charged and face a trial. 
Meanwhile, though, citizens have <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/el-salvador-vows-gang-crackdown-will-go-citizens-cheer-safer-streets-2023-02-15/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">celebrated</a> El Salvador&#8217;s streets becoming safer, and murders have plummeted by about half.

El Salvador: gang members transferred to 40,000-capacity âmega-prisonâ

El Salvador’s Crime Crackdown Could Push Gangs North Toward U.S., Expert Warns

Could El Salvador's Crime Crackdown Push Gangs To The U.S. Border?

Biden

Immigration

Video of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/el-salvador" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Salvadoran</a> President Nayib Bukele addressing soldiers tasked with battling rampant gang activity went viral on social media as the small Latin American nation seeks to control violent <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/crime" target="_blank" rel="noopener">crime</a>.
El Salvador saw a 56.8% decrease in the murder rate last year as the nation’s government launched an operation against gangs such as MS-13, which is especially infamous for its brutal killings of women and children. Salvadoran authorities arrested some 64,000 suspected gang members in less than one year.
Bukele previously shared a <a href="https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1629165213600849920" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a> on social media showing 2,000 gang members with shaved heads and no clothes except for identical white shorts being packed into buses by heavily armed prison guards and transported to a newly constructed supermax prison. Bukele, who assumed office in 2019, shared more footage from a <a href="https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1630649426908676098" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speech</a> he delivered to units of Salvadoran soldiers dressed in battle gear and positioned in a large field. He emphasized the government’s role in protecting the innocent.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🇸🇻 <a href="https://t.co/Th2Zz8FbpQ">pic.twitter.com/Th2Zz8FbpQ</a>
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) <a href="https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1630649426908676098?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“For eight months, we have been fighting this war against the gangs. And thank God, we are winning. This is a very surprising victory that is nearly within our grasp. Let it be clear that the glory is for God,” Bukele said. “We humans are lucky to be instruments of God, all of us, to bring peace, liberty, and happiness to the Salvadoran people.”
Bukele commended the young soldiers for embracing the virtues that have historically built prosperous nations. “Peace is built with hard work, with sweat, with effort, and with the bravery that you and your brothers in the police have,” he continued. “It is worth risking your life for that purpose that is more important than yourself alone. Values such as bravery, such as courage, such as strength, discipline, patriotism, honor, loyalty, and love for your fellow man.&#8221;
The official appeared to contrast the rise of El Salvador amid the crackdown on criminality with the decline of the United States, where major cities are increasingly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-2020-saw-largest-spike-in-homicide-rate-in-100-years" target="_blank" rel="noopener">characterized</a> by violence. Video of organized smash-and-grab <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/interest-groups-make-push-to-battle-organized-retail-crime-at-the-federal-level" target="_blank" rel="noopener">robberies</a>, as well as brazen <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/security-guard-murdered-while-protecting-news-team-covering-smash-and-grab-robbery" target="_blank" rel="noopener">murders</a> and attacks on unsuspecting American urbanites, frequently circulate on social media. The international attention toward El Salvador indeed comes as a <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/01/12/as-murders-spiked-police-solved-about-half-in-2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Marshall Project showed that authorities in the United States solved less than 50% of homicides in 2020, the latest metric in a long decline since the 70% of homicides that were solved in the 1980s.
<div class="c-message_kit__blocks c-message_kit__blocks--rich_text">
<div class="c-message__message_blocks c-message__message_blocks--rich_text" data-qa="message-text">
<div class="p-block_kit_renderer" data-qa="block-kit-renderer">
<div class="p-block_kit_renderer__block_wrapper p-block_kit_renderer__block_wrapper--first">
<div class="p-rich_text_block" dir="auto">
<div class="p-rich_text_section"><a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://onelink.to/dwapp" data-sk="tooltip_parent">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
“These are the fundamental values for human society, but these values are increasingly scarce in the world. If you watch the international news, you will see how the most important values for human beings, such as honor, loyalty, bravery, courage, and love for your fellow man, are precisely the values that we are losing with each passing day,” Bukele said. “And that is why you can see how societies that seemed to have won, now are degrading, as they are losing the values that made them great. These values were probably not strong in this land, and were strong in other lands. And that is why those lands grew and became great. But they are losing those values now.”
Though the popularity enjoyed by the Bukele administration has reportedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-law-is-a-teacher-michael-knowles-reacts-to-viral-video-showing-el-salvadors-crackdown-on-violent-gangs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remained</a> consistently high, critics have said that his government maintains authoritarian tendencies.
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-twitter-war-has-california-democrat-sleeping-with-gun-by-her-bed">Report: Twitter War Has California Democrat Sleeping With Gun By Her Bed</a>

Screen Shot 2023-03-01 at 12.16.42 PM

WATCH: El Salvador President Addresses Soldiers Battling Gang Violence, Has An Ominous Word For America

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele Addresses Soldiers Battling Gang Violence, Has An Ominous Word For America

Criminal Justice

Law Enforcement

Daily Wire host <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/michael-knowles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Knowles</a> lauded a viral video from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/el-salvador" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Salvadoran</a> President Nayib Bukele showing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/gangs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gang</a> members rounded up and sent to a large prison complex in humiliating fashion, contending that American officials should likewise wield authority to deter violent <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/crime" target="_blank" rel="noopener">crime</a>.
El Salvador witnessed a 56.8% decrease in the murder rate last year as the Latin American nation’s government instituted a crackdown on gang-related violence. Bukele shared a <a href="https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1629165213600849920" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a> on social media showing thousands of gang members with shaved heads and no clothes except for identical white shorts being packed into buses by heavily armed prison guards. The offenders were then transported in buses to a newly constructed supermax prison.
El Salvador constitutes the territory of MS-13, a gang especially infamous for its brutal killings of women and children. Knowles <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpLciEz5HTU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> during a recent episode of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-michael-knowles-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Michael Knowles Show</a>” that the Salvadoran effort to protect its population arose as a result of a concentrated will from the electorate.
“It’s a miracle political program over the last couple of years,” Knowles remarked. “How did El Salvador do that? It wanted to do that. It wanted to fix the murder problem, it mustered the political will to do it, and then the president effecting this policy, sent in troops to go round up MS-13 like the animals that they are.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
“It’s a miracle political program”. <a href="https://t.co/jqvzH50tqv">https://t.co/jqvzH50tqv</a>
&mdash; Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) <a href="https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1630626743299059713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Knowles noted that Bukele intentionally “created a very slick, highly produced propaganda video humiliating them, and then he put that out there for all the world to see” and contrasted the unapologetic approach toward criminal justice with the policies advanced by American officials. “We in the United States need to follow the lead of the government of El Salvador,” he continued. “We need to be clear that if you commit crimes, you will be punished for it.”
The video from El Salvador indeed follows a <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/01/12/as-murders-spiked-police-solved-about-half-in-2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Marshall Project indicating that authorities in the United States solved less than 50% of homicides in 2020, marking the latest concerning metric in a long decline since the 70% of homicides which were solved in the 1980s. The trend occurs as Americans exhibit their lowest approval in decades for capital punishment: only 54% of respondents to one Gallup <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/357440/death-penalty-support-holding-five-decade-low.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> were in favor of the death penalty for an individual convicted of murder.
Knowles, predicting that criminals in the United States do not believe that they will be held accountable for their actions, blasted “the libs and the squishes” who described the crackdown in El Salvador as inhumane or authoritarian. One <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/09/12/the-rise-of-nayib-bukele-el-salvadors-authoritarian-president" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a> from The New Yorker said that Bukele instituted “a repressive crackdown on gangs to become Latin America’s most popular leader.”
“Can you be repressive against gangs?” Knowles asked. “Seems like that is actually liberative of the people. It’s not repressive upon the people when you go after these criminals.”
<a class="c-link" href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://onelink.to/dwapp" data-sk="tooltip_parent" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-4883">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
Knowles also observed that Bukele has become the region’s most popular leader because he is “wielding authority to do good, to get the bad guys and to help the good guys.” He encouraged American lawmakers, judges, and executives to follow suit.
“What he is showing us is that the law is a teacher. We’ve known this all the way back to the ancient Greeks,” Knowles continued. “When the law sends an army to your door and rounds up your gang like the animals they are, you are going to get fewer gangsters, and they are going to commit fewer crimes.”

Collage Maker-28-Feb-2023-04.54-PM

‘The Law Is A Teacher’: Michael Knowles Reacts To Viral Video Showing El Salvador’s Crackdown On Violent Gangs

Michael Knowles Reacts To El Salvador's Crackdown On Violent Gang Members

Michael Knowles

A former Marine accused of strangling his girlfriend in 2016 was finally caught in Central America after spending six years on the run.
Raymond “RJ” McLeod, 37, had been dating Krystal Mitchell, 30, for just a few weeks when the couple from Phoenix, Arizona, took a trip to San Diego, California, to visit friends, Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/us-marshals-capture-top-15-most-wanted-murder-suspect-raymond-rj-mcleod">reported</a>. Mitchell was found dead in an apartment not long after, with signs of a struggle. Police determined that she had been seen last with McLeod and quickly issued an arrest warrant. McLeod, an avid bodybuilder, is 5-foot-11 and weighed 245 pounds at the time of Mitchell’s murder.
McLeod disappeared, however, and by December 2016, authorities in San Diego requested the U.S. Marshals help locate the fugitive. He became the first suspect to have a $50,000 reward for his capture while debuting on the U.S. Marshals’ Top 15 Most Wanted list.
&#8220;Raymond McLeod will be the first fugitive in history on our 15 Most Wanted list with an initial reward of up to $50,000,&#8221; U.S. Marshal Service Director Donald Washington said in <a href="https://www.usmarshals.gov/news/most-wanted-news/us-marshals-offer-50000-information-former-marine-wanted-murder">a statement</a> in 2021. &#8220;We want McLeod’s new status as a 15 Most Wanted fugitive and the $50,000 reward amount to be broadcasted far and wide. McLeod poses a significant threat to the public and must be brought to justice.&#8221;
Authorities suspected McLeod fled the U.S. through Mexico to Central America following Mitchell’s murder, with reported sightings in Belize and Guatemala over the years. U.S. Marshals also warned that he may have been using the name Matt or Mateo and may have grown a beard to disguise himself.
McLeod was arrested on Monday afternoon after U.S. Marshals received a tip saying he had been teaching English at a school 40 miles west of San Salvador, El Salvador, Fox reported.
Mitchell’s mother, Josephine Wentzel, a former detective, ended her retirement to help authorities find McLeod. After his capture, she praised the U.S. Marshals Task Force Chief Frankie Sanchez and deputy marshal Francisco Barajas for their “excellent work.”
&#8220;I have had faith and trust in them, and ever since meeting Francisco Barajas, I had full confidence that this day would come, and he would be the one to catch him,&#8221; she told Fox News. &#8220;I told him, ‘You are my hero. We are bonded for life.’&#8221;
Wentzel also called McLeod “arrogant” and “ruthless,” <a href="https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/us-marshals-capture-wanted-murder-suspect-raymond-rj-mcleod/509-009b4a5c-c9d0-4193-baeb-1d15150bde64">according to CBS 8</a>. “He’s a charmer, and that’s the danger.”

Cropped Hand Of Handcuffs

Bodybuilding Ex-Marine Wanted For Murder Finally Caught After Six Years On The Run

Raymond McLeod, Wanted For Murder, Finally Caught After Six Years On The Run

San Diego

On Saturday, El Salvador&#8217;s President Nayib Bukele announced plans to build the world’s first “Bitcoin City.” The city will have residential and commercial areas, restaurants, entertainment venues, and an airport, and will be funded initially by bitcoin-backed bonds.
“Speaking at an event to mark the close of a week to promote bitcoin in El Salvador, Bukele said the city planned in the east of the country would get its energy supply from a volcano and would not levy any taxes except for value added tax (VAT),” reported <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/el-salvador-plans-first-bitcoin-city-backed-by-bitcoin-bonds">Fox Business</a>.
&#8220;We&#8217;ll start funding in 2022, the bonds will be available in 2022,&#8221; Bukele said.
&#8220;Invest here and make all the money you want,&#8221; Bukele <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/el-salvador-plans-first-bitcoin-city-backed-by-bitcoin-bonds-2021-11-21/">told</a> the crowd. &#8220;This is a fully ecological city that works and is energized by a volcano.&#8221;
Samson Mow, chief strategy officer of blockchain technology provider Blockstream, joined Bukele, and said that the country would issue a $1 billion bitcoin-backed bond which would spearhead funding for the building plans.
Back in June, El Salvador <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/el-salvador-makes-history-becomes-first-country-to-make-bitcoin-legal-tender">made history</a> as the country’s legislature passed a law making Bitcoin legal tender in the Central American nation.
“The designation allows bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, to be used to pay taxes. Businesses would also be obligated to accept bitcoin for payment, though those without the ability to process those payments would be exempt, according to the bill. Converting bitcoin into other currencies will no longer be subject to capital-gains tax,” <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/el-salvador-becomes-first-country-to-approve-bitcoin-as-legal-tender-11623234476#:~:text=El%20Salvador's%20legislative%20body%20passed,be%20used%20to%20pay%20taxes.">The Wall Street Journal</a> explained at the time. “To allow the automatic convertibility of bitcoin to U.S. dollars, El Salvador’s government said it would set up a trust at the Development Bank of El Salvador. The Latin American country, one of the region’s poorest, has struggled over the years to manage its finances and has used the U.S. dollar as its official currency since 2001.”
According to El Salvador’s government, the use of the cryptocurrency could fuel “financial inclusion,” with the bill noting that “70% of its population doesn’t have access to traditional financial services.”
The Bitcoin Law was supported by a “supermajority” in El Salvador’s Congress, with the bill receiving 62 votes out of an available 84. President Nayib Bukele described the move as “History!”
“The [Bitcoin Law] has been approved by a supermajority in the Salvadoran Congress,” <a href="https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1402507224916836352">tweeted</a> Bukele. “62 out of 84 votes!”
“The purpose of this law is to regulate bitcoin as unrestricted legal tender with liberating power, unlimited in any transaction, and to any title that public or private natural or legal persons require carrying out,” the law reads, as reported by <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/09/el-salvador-proposes-law-to-make-bitcoin-legal-tender.html">CNBC</a>, with the cryptocurrency’s exchange rate with the U.S. dollar — El Salvador’s official currency — being “freely established by the market.”
“Necessary training and mechanisms so that the population can access bitcoin transactions” would also be provided by the government.
Despite falling from its record high of $68,990.90 in recent days, Bitcoin is still up more than 90% this year alone.

Nayib Bukele

El Salvador Plans First ‘Bitcoin City,’ Will Raise $1 Billion With ‘Bitcoin Bond’

Bitcoin

Cryptocurrency

Citing environmental concerns, The World Bank rejected a request from El Salvador to help implement the use of Bitcoin as legal tender.
According to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57507386">BBC</a>, the “international lender” also “cited concerns over transparency,” indicating that El Salvador may struggle to meet its deadline of accepting Bitcoin throughout the country within the next three months.
&#8220;We are committed to helping El Salvador in numerous ways including for currency transparency and regulatory processes,&#8221; a World Bank spokesperson told Reuters. &#8220;While the government did approach us for assistance on Bitcoin, this is not something the World Bank can support given the environmental and transparency shortcomings,&#8221; they added.
As <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/06/17/world-bank-bitcoin-el-salvador/">The Washington Post</a> noted, “El Salvador’s finance minister, Alejandro Zelaya, had told reporters Wednesday that the government hoped to receive technical assistance from the World Bank, as well as advice on coming up with standards for the use of the cryptocurrency.”
“The organization distributes billions of dollars to developing nations through loans and grants each year, and its involvement in El Salvador’s bitcoin plan would have been seen as a sign that the experiment was backed by powerful players in the international development world,” The Washington Post added.
El Salvador <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/el-salvador-makes-history-becomes-first-country-to-make-bitcoin-legal-tender">made history</a> last week, as the country’s legislature passed a law making Bitcoin legal tender in the Central American nation.
“The designation allows bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, to be used to pay taxes. Businesses would also be obligated to accept bitcoin for payment, though those without the ability to process those payments would be exempt, according to the bill. Converting bitcoin into other currencies will no longer be subject to capital gains tax,” explained <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/el-salvador-becomes-first-country-to-approve-bitcoin-as-legal-tender-11623234476#:~:text=El%20Salvador's%20legislative%20body%20passed,be%20used%20to%20pay%20taxes.">The Wall Street Journal</a>. “To allow the automatic convertibility of bitcoin to U.S. dollars, El Salvador’s government said it would set up a trust at the Development Bank of El Salvador. The Latin American country, one of the region’s poorest, has struggled over the years to manage its finances and has used the U.S. dollar as its official currency since 2001.”
According to El Salvador’s government, the use of cryptocurrency could fuel “financial inclusion,” with the bill noting that “70% of its population doesn’t have access to traditional financial services.”
Environmental concerns regarding cryptocurrency — specifically, the mining of cryptocurrency — is not unfounded. Researchers at Cambridge University <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/as-prices-surge-bitcoin-now-reportedly-consumes-more-electricity-than-argentina-netherlands-and-uae">found in February</a> that, in terms of annual energy consumption, Bitcoin now consumes more power than Argentina, the Netherlands, and the United Arab Emirates, at 121.36 TWh. According to Digiconomist’s Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, a <a href="https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption">tool</a> created by data scientist Alex de Vries, Bitcoin now has a “carbon footprint comparable to that of New Zealand,” producing an estimated 36.95 megatons of C02 per year.
Senator Elizabeth Warren slammed Bitcoin in this context in early June, saying “Bitcoin requires so much computing activity that it eats up more energy than entire countries.”
“One of the easiest and least disruptive things we can do to fight the [Climate Crisis] is to crack down on environmentally wasteful cryptocurrencies,” Warren added,
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Bitcoin requires so much computing activity that it eats up more energy than entire countries. One of the easiest and least disruptive things we can do to fight the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ClimateCrisis?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ClimateCrisis</a> is to crack down on environmentally wasteful cryptocurrencies. <a href="https://t.co/derGr1bjuq">pic.twitter.com/derGr1bjuq</a>
&mdash; Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/1402725005113364486?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 9, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

World Bank Refuses To Support El Salvador Bitcoin Rollout, Citing Environmental Concerns

Climate Change

El Salvador made history on Wednesday, as the country’s legislature passed a law making Bitcoin legal tender in the Central American nation.
“The designation allows bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, to be used to pay taxes. Businesses would also be obligated to accept bitcoin for payment, though those without the ability to process those payments would be exempt, according to the bill. Converting bitcoin into other currencies will no longer be subject to capital-gains tax,” explained <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/el-salvador-becomes-first-country-to-approve-bitcoin-as-legal-tender-11623234476#:~:text=El%20Salvador's%20legislative%20body%20passed,be%20used%20to%20pay%20taxes.">The Wall Street Journal</a>. “To allow the automatic convertibility of bitcoin to U.S. dollars, El Salvador’s government said it would set up a trust at the Development Bank of El Salvador. The Latin American country, one of the region’s poorest, has struggled over the years to manage its finances and has used the U.S. dollar as its official currency since 2001.”
According to El Salvador’s government, the use of the cryptocurrency could fuel “financial inclusion,” with the bill noting that “70% of its population doesn’t have access to traditional financial services.”
The Bitcoin Law, which comes into effect in 90 days, was supported by a “supermajority” in El Salvador’s Congress, with the bill receiving 62 votes out of an available 84. President Nayib Bukele described the move as “History!”
“The [Bitcoin Law] has been approved by a supermajority in the Salvadoran Congress,” tweeted Bukele. “62 out of 84 votes!”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BitcoinLaw?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BitcoinLaw</a> has been approved by a supermajority in the Salvadoran Congress.
62 out of 84 votes!
History! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Btc?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Btc</a>🇸🇻
&mdash; Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) <a href="https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1402507224916836352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 9, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“The purpose of this law is to regulate bitcoin as unrestricted legal tender with liberating power, unlimited in any transaction, and to any title that public or private natural or legal persons require carrying out,” the law reads, as reported by <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/09/el-salvador-proposes-law-to-make-bitcoin-legal-tender.html">CNBC</a>, with the cryptocurrency’s exchange rate with the U.S. dollar — El Salvador’s official currency — being “freely established by the market.”
“Necessary training and mechanisms so that the population can access bitcoin transactions” would also be provided by the government.
The notoriously volatile cryptocurrency has fluctuated in price in recent months, dropping by almost 50% since an April high of $64,829.14, according to CoinDesk.
One factor apparently driving such turbulence is China’s apparent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/judgement-day-for-crypto-with-eyes-on-digital-currency-china-continues-assault-on-cryptocurrency-blocks-social-media-crypto-accounts">assault</a> on the cryptocurrency market as the communist regime looks to develop its own state-regulated “digital currency.”
In what was described by a “Judgement Day for crypto,” the Chinese government recently “blocked multiple crypto-related accounts on Weibo, the Chinese blogging platform, with more steps expected to follow, ‘including linking illegal crypto activities in China more directly with the country’s criminal law.’”
Last month, the actions of Chinese authorities were swiftly followed by a crash in the cryptocurrency market, with the market cap losing nearly $1 trillion after the government <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-ethereum-plunge-crypto-market-134615617.html">banned</a> “financial and payment institutions from providing cryptocurrency services,” while <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57169726">warning</a> “investors against speculative crypto trading.”
In addition, following Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bitcoin-plunges-12-after-elon-musk-says-tesla-will-stop-accepting-the-coin-wipes-365-billion-off-cryptocurrency-market">announcement</a> in mid-May that “the electronic car company would suspend vehicle purchases with Bitcoin,” the price of Bitcoin plunged, with up to $365 billion “wiped” off the entire cryptocurrency market.

El Salvador Bitcoin

El Salvador Makes History, Becomes First Country To Make Bitcoin Legal Tender

Elon Musk

Menu