The full transcript of the video is as follows:

0:00 March 26th, 2022. El Salvador records 87

0:04 murders in just 72 hours. The bloodiest

0:08 weekend in the country's history. That

0:10 night, President Naib Boule took to

0:13 Twitter and declared war. He suspended

0:16 the Constitution and began a campaign of

0:19 mass arrest unlike anything the region

0:21 had seen. 3 years later, El Salvador's

0:24 homicide rate dropped 98% from 106 to

0:29 1.3 per 100,000 people. That's lower

0:32 than the US, France, and Canada. And

0:35 while global leaders deal with terrible

0:38 approval ratings, Naive Boulli sits at

0:41 over 90%, the highest in the democratic

0:44 world. But there's a catch. Nearly two

0:48 in every 100 people are in prison, by

0:51 far the highest in the world. And the

0:53 country is beginning to look more like a

0:55 dictatorship than democracy. So this

0:58 begs the question, do the ends justify

1:00 the means? And is Boulli a sinner or a

1:04 saint?

1:08 [music]

1:09 Our story starts with the war and the

1:11 death of this man, Archbishop Oscar

1:14 Romero. El Salvador has a bloody and

1:17 incredibly complex history. We don't

1:20 have time to explain everything, [music]

1:22 but here are the spark notes. Starting

1:24 in the late 1800s, the country was ruled

1:27 by coffee and agricultural oligarchs

1:29 called the 14 families. [music]

1:32 Now, it wasn't exactly 14 families, more

1:35 like a few dozen, but the name stuck.

1:37 They controlled basically everything.

1:40 But this led to a ton of push back. To

1:42 protect their control, they partnered

1:44 with armed forces [music] and crushed

1:46 the opposition. This included business

1:48 competition, the church, and indigenous

1:51 communities. Over time, these armed

1:53 forces grew increasingly powerful

1:55 [music] and turned El Salvador into a

1:57 military dictatorship, becoming more

2:00 formalized in 1931. In 1932, [music]

2:03 they slaughtered over 10,000 indigenous

2:05 people and peasants to stop a communist

2:08 uprising. [music] They forbid peasants

2:10 and working-class people from

2:12 organizing. They blatantly stole

2:14 elections [music] and terrorized

2:16 communities with their death squads for

2:18 decades. But it all came to a head on

2:21 October 15th, 1979 when more moderate

2:24 members of the military overthrew

2:26 General Carlos Romero after they had had

2:29 enough with the death and chaos in their

2:31 country. This new Ha promised to put an

2:34 end to the death squads. They promised

2:36 land reforms. They promised a path to

2:39 prosperity and the US under Jimmy Carter

2:42 backed them. But the reformist officers

2:45 couldn't keep control of the Huna and

2:47 [music] splinter factions formed and

2:48 death squads grew again. We cannot

2:51 stress just how important this was. And

2:54 remember Archbishop Romero, he was

2:57 begging Jimmy Carter to stop backing the

2:59 military hunters. He feared for his

3:01 nation and his people. But on March

3:04 24th, 1980, while performing mass, yes,

3:07 a prayer, he was shot and killed in

3:10 front of a crowd. And El Salvador was

3:12 officially beyond saving. The communist

3:15 factions combined under one banner, the

3:17 FMLN, and the US, fearing for the spread

3:20 of communism, doubled down in their

3:22 support of the military. El Salvador was

3:24 an open war zone, and half a million

3:26 people fled to America and elsewhere.

3:29 Many settled in LA and experienced

3:31 violence from local Mexican and

3:32 African-American gangs. To protect

3:35 themselves, teenage asileles formed

3:37 MS-13, while others joined Bario 18. A

3:40 bitter rivalry formed, and LA

3:42 experienced some of [music] the most

3:43 heinous and violent gang activity in the

3:46 country. In 1992 alone, Los Angeles

3:49 County recorded an all-time peak of 2589

3:53 homicides. [music] For context, the

3:55 county's homicide total today fluctuates

3:58 around 500 to 650 per year with more

4:02 people. Having had enough, Bill Clinton

4:05 passed the Illegal immigration reform

4:07 and immigrant responsibility act in

4:09 September 1996. The law was simple.

4:13 Lower the burden required to deport

4:15 criminals. And the effect was major.

4:17 Tens of thousands of El Salvadorian gang

4:20 members shipped back to El Salvador.

4:22 Now, it's important to understand that

4:24 El Salvador just ended a brutal civil

4:26 war. The country was in an incredibly

4:29 fragile state and they didn't have the

4:31 resources or institutions to fight these

4:33 coordinated gangs. MS13 and Bario 18 saw

4:36 this and took advantage. They entrenched

4:39 themselves in neighborhoods, leveraged

4:41 gang recruitment techniques they learned

4:43 in America, and dominated El Salvador's

4:45 weak police force. They extorted small

4:48 businesses, took over entire

4:50 communities, forcibly recruited

4:52 teenagers, and basically ruled like

4:54 kings. To understand just how bad it

4:57 got, we put some data together. Here are

5:00 the murder rates per 100,000 for

5:03 different countries. The US 6, Canada 2,

5:07 Western Europe 1, and Mexico 17. The US

5:10 and Mexico particularly stand out as

5:13 having high murder rates, right? But

5:15 when we add El Salvador to the mix, 103,

5:19 it makes everything else look like

5:21 nothing. And moreover, if you just look

5:24 at men aged 15 to 29, that number jumps

5:27 to nearly 400. And by 2016, gangs

5:31 control territory in 247 of the

5:34 country's 262 municipalities, with gang

5:37 membership representing 1% of the

5:40 population. Think about that. Imagine if

5:43 gangs control 94% of the United States.

5:46 The saddest part is that the government

5:49 tried various tactics to stamp out this

5:51 problem. In the early 2000s, they

5:53 performed mass arrests, but they

5:55 segregated gangs into different prisons.

5:58 This turned these prisons into command

6:00 centers and increased their

6:01 sophistication. Then in 2012, the

6:04 government decided to broker a truce

6:05 directly with MS-13 and Bario 18. But

6:08 this was also a terrible strategy. The

6:11 gangs leveraged their reduction in

6:13 police pressure as an opportunity to

6:16 deepen their extortion networks,

6:18 solidify political leverage, and arm up.

6:20 And when the secret truce leaked to the

6:23 press, the citizens outrage led to the

6:25 truce falling apart and open war was

6:28 waged against the police and military.

6:30 As you can see from this chart, the

6:32 homicide rate would eb and flow, but

6:35 nothing solved it permanently. Any

6:37 solution was temporary. It's no surprise

6:40 that the people of El Salvador had just

6:42 had enough. 54% said they limited their

6:46 recreational activity out of fear. 78%

6:49 of citizens said that traditional

6:51 parties didn't represent them and 77%

6:54 believed the government was corrupt. It

6:57 was on this fertile ground that a

6:59 recently dejected Naib Boule would rise.

7:05 [music]

7:06 Naib Bukle was born into an affluent

7:09 family, a very affluent family. We are

7:12 talking separate life levels of wealth.

7:15 His father was of Palestinian descent

7:17 and had built a sprawling business

7:18 empire spanning advertising, textiles,

7:21 and more. Boullle's foray into politics

7:24 began when he worked for and led his

7:26 father's PR firm, Oberet. One of

7:29 Oberett's biggest clients was the FMLN.

7:32 Yes, the left-wing political party

7:35 formed by communist gerillas in the

7:36 leadup to the civil war. Advising FMLN

7:39 gave him a better taste for politics and

7:41 at the age of 29, Boulli decided to run

7:44 for mayor of a small town under the FMLN

7:47 banner and he won. He later parlayed

7:50 this into becoming the mayor of the

7:51 nation's capital, San Salvador. But

7:54 everything wasn't so picture perfect.

7:56 You see, tensions were brewing inside

7:59 the FMLN as party insiders viewed him as

8:02 arrogant, privileged, and

8:03 uncontrollable. And in 2017, they

8:06 expelled him from the party, claiming he

8:09 had thrown an apple at a female party

8:11 member and called her a witch. You

8:14 literally can't make this stuff up.

8:16 Untethered from the FMLN, Boulli formed

8:18 his own political movement, Noeves

8:21 Ideas. New ideas, pretty simple. He

8:24 positioned himself as a post ideological

8:26 populace. Neither right nor left, just a

8:29 young outsider ready to clean up the

8:31 corruption of the elites. When electoral

8:34 authorities block ideas from registering

8:36 in time for the 2019 presidential

8:38 election, Bkelli pragmatically formed an

8:41 alliance with Gna or Ghana, a right-wing

8:44 party running entirely on an

8:46 anti-corruption and anti-establishment

8:48 platform heavily propelled by Twitter

8:50 and Facebook. He won a landslide victory

8:53 in the first round with 53% of the vote.

8:56 And at 37, he broke the 30-year grip of

8:59 the two traditional parties, Arena and

9:01 FMLN, becoming the president of Al

9:04 Salvador. Now, Boule didn't pounce

9:07 against gang violence immediately after

9:09 getting elected. No. No. In fact, he

9:13 criticized previous governments for

9:14 their ironfisted approaches, arguing it

9:17 only fueled more violence. But in March

9:20 2022, after negotiations between the

9:23 government and gang leaders reportedly

9:24 broke down, gangs killed 87 random

9:27 civilians in a single weekend, Boullle

9:31 immediately changed his tune and took an

9:33 even harder stance than those he had

9:35 previously criticized. He went to the

9:38 legislature and declared a state of

9:39 exception, suspending constitutional

9:41 rights, wiretap protections, and the

9:43 right to due process. Armed with the

9:46 power to do whatever he wanted, Boule

9:48 acted swiftly. First, the military and

9:51 police launched synchronized operations

9:53 to seal off whole neighborhoods

9:55 identified as gang strongholds or red

9:58 zones. After a perimeter was

10:00 established, they went door by door

10:02 searching for gang members and set up

10:03 checkpoints around that perimeter to

10:05 prevent anyone from escaping. Soldiers

10:08 and police profiled based on tattoos or

10:11 specific clothing. They took in

10:12 anonymous tips from neighbors. They even

10:15 acted on behavior they thought was odd.

10:18 Once rounded up, these suspected gang

10:20 members were busted to temporary holding

10:22 facilities where each of them had their

10:24 heads shaved and clothes replaced with

10:26 white shorts. Next, detainees were moved

10:29 to maximum security prisons, including

10:31 the Center for Confinement of Terrorism,

10:33 which houses 40,000 inmates. These

10:36 prisons allowed no visitation, no

10:39 enrichment programs, no in-person court

10:41 visits, and only 30 minutes of time

10:43 outside their [music] cells each day.

10:46 And the last phase, mass trials.

10:49 Detainees are tried in massive groups,

10:52 sometimes hundreds at a time, by

10:53 faceless or anonymous judges whose

10:56 identities are protected. Human rights

10:58 organizations around the world,

10:59 including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty

11:01 International, have denounced the

11:03 approach. Critics point to the erosion

11:06 of freedoms, collective trials,

11:08 profiling, and more. But here's the

11:10 thing. 90% of citizens are in favor.

11:14 Think about that. 90%.

11:17 What other policies exist where nearly

11:20 every single citizen is in [music]

11:22 agreement? And before you say these

11:24 numbers are made up, think twice. Third

11:27 party surveyors have verified this. They

11:30 all agree that Boullle's policies are

11:32 incredibly popular and they could point

11:35 to one [music] stat that says why

11:37 homicides [snorts]

11:38 are down 98%.

11:40 To locals who have suffered at the hands

11:42 of gangs for decades, the means justify

11:45 the ends. But now that crime is down and

11:48 the country is safer, you'd expect that

11:50 the state of exception would be lifted,

11:53 right? Real quick, if you're enjoying

11:55 the video up to this point, please

11:56 consider leaving a subscribe. It really

11:59 helps the channel. And now back to the

12:01 video.

12:03 [music]

12:05 To this day, the state of exception

12:08 remains. Moreover, Boulli has made other

12:11 reforms to consolidate power and squash

12:13 disscent. He replaced judges on the

12:16 Supreme Court's constitutional chamber

12:18 and leveraged the newly appointed judges

12:20 to allow him to run for office again.

12:23 His party holds a supermajority

12:25 functioning as a rubber stamp for

12:27 executive decrees and under the guise of

12:30 security prominent human rights

12:32 attorneys, constitutional lawyers and

12:34 journalists have been targeted, arrested

12:37 or forced into exile. Boullle has

12:40 transformed El Salvador from a failed

12:42 state ruled by gang violence into a

12:45 police state ruled by executive

12:47 absolutism. One of the more appalling

12:49 examples of censorship occurred in May

12:51 2025. The news outlet Al Farro launched

12:54 a video interview series featuring gang

12:57 leaders who detailed their long alleged

13:00 negotiations with the Boule government.

13:02 Yep, Boulli tried making peace with the

13:05 gangs. Unsurprisingly, Boullle was not

13:08 happy with this being out in the public.

13:10 In direct retaliation, the attorney

13:12 general's office targeted seven Al Faro

13:14 journalists with criminal warrants,

13:16 charging them with advocacy of crime and

13:18 unlawful association. Facing immediate

13:21 imprisonment under a legal system with

13:23 zero due process, the journalists were

13:26 forced to flee. By 2026, the entire core

13:29 staff of Alfaro and human rights group

13:31 Christoal were operating entirely from

13:34 exile. More broadly, the government has

13:37 enacted laws that make it illegal to

13:39 report on gang activity, handing down up

13:42 to 15-year prison sentences for failing

13:45 to comply. Then there's the use of

13:48 Pegasus software to spy on journalists,

13:50 especially those investigating state

13:52 corruption.

13:54 You get the idea. El Salvador has a

13:57 nononsense policy on any descent,

13:59 [music]

13:59 but advocates for this would argue it is

14:02 necessary. And this is where we [music]

14:04 get to the interesting question of

14:06 practicality verse principle. El

14:09 Salvador was a country with democratic

14:11 institutions, a strong constitution, and

14:14 [music] on the surface, a rule of law.

14:16 But even with this, the country was

14:18 basically run by gangs. To citizens, the

14:21 choice was simple. Violence or peace.

14:25 And other leaders in the region are

14:27 taking no, leading to a new term being

14:29 coined, bualysismo. In Colombia,

14:32 Abelardo de la Espria was elected with

14:35 very similar ideas as Boule. mega

14:38 [music] presence, mass incarcerations,

14:40 rejection of soft peace and more. Not

14:43 only that, but Espira also has a similar

14:46 curated aesthetic as Boule and use

14:48 social media to bypass traditional media

14:51 which generally opposed his candidacy.

14:54 [music] In Ecuador, Daniel Naboa

14:55 declared an internal armed conflict and

14:57 state of emergency after [music] seeing

14:59 an explosion of drug trafficking

15:01 violence. He also approved the

15:03 construction of his own maximum security

15:05 prison. Even Honduras, which was run by

15:08 a left-wing party, announced plans for a

15:11 2,000 person island penal colony. Really

15:14 ask yourself this. Who are we as

15:17 foreigners to judge what the people on

15:19 the ground democratically voted for?

15:22 There is one nation that Boule looks up

15:25 to more than any other. Singapore. Under

15:29 founder Lie Kuan Yu's leadership,

15:30 Singapore transformed from a

15:32 crimeinfested dirt poor colony into a

15:35 safe, clean, [music] and global

15:37 powerhouse. But like Boullle, the means

15:40 were not always pretty. Lie Kuan Yu used

15:43 the Internal Security Act to allow the

15:45 government to detain individuals

15:47 indefinitely without trial. He

15:50 introduced capital punishment and zero

15:52 tolerance policies towards gang activity

15:54 and drugs. He shifted the burden of

15:57 proof from the state to the accused,

16:00 leading to incredibly high conviction

16:02 rates. And he weaponized defamation

16:05 lawsuits and used them to financially

16:07 ruin critics. But Lie Kuan Yu is

16:10 remembered like a saint, the savior of

16:13 Singapore. I for one admire him. For Lee

16:16 Kuan Yu, what mattered was not the

16:18 means, but the outcome. For Lee Kuanu,

16:21 what mattered was society, not the

16:23 individual. [music] These are concepts

16:26 foreign to the west but battle tested in

16:28 the east [music] in Singapore, Korea and

16:31 China. And now Boullle steps on the

16:34 podium to try his [music] hand. But only

16:37 time will tell whether he will be

16:39 remembered as a sinner or a saint.

16:42 [music]

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