The U.S. El Salvador Caucus in Congress introduced its newest member on Monday as the country increases its push to present itself as a safer nation under President Nayib Bukele: Rep. Nancy Mace, from South Carolina.
The announcement comes less than a week after the existing members of the caucus called on the Biden administration to reduce the country's travel advisory, currently at Level 3, which means "Reconsider Travel" and is the second-highest possible.
In that context, the caucus' 13 members (now 14) asked the government to change the travel advisory to Level 1, the lowest one. "El Salvador is now, and has been since 2023, the safest country in the Western Hemisphere; the State Department's travel advisory, regrettably, does not reflect this reality," reads a passage of the letter reported by the Washington Examiner.
"Since 2015, El Salvador's homicide rate has been steadily declining, from a high of 104 per 100,000 inhabitants to 2.4 in 2024. This homicide rate is less than nearly every major city in the United States," said the caucus members, led by co-chairmen Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Vicente González (D-TX).
There is no rational justification for the Level 3 advisory discouraging US travel to El Salvador. @nayibbukele locks up the criminals to keep everyone else safe.
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) August 6, 2024
I applaud the bipartisan @SAL_Caucus for leading this initiative with me. https://t.co/OvhMU6TvaR
The U.S. currently keeps the advisory due to the "persistence of violent crimes in some areas" and fear over a "State of Exception" order from the government, which gives security forces broad authority to conduct arrests. "Several U.S. and other foreign citizens have been detained under the State of Exception, some in a reportedly arbitrary manner," the advisory says.
However, the letter claims that the order has led to the incarceration of over 75,000 violent gang members, something that has turned the country into one where crime is "no longer an epidemic, leaving the good citizens of El Salvador and foreign tourists to enjoy the nation unburdened by any serious risk of violence or petty crime."
According to a report by InSight Crime, El Salvador saw a 69.2% decrease in its homicide rate over the past year, clocking in at 2.4 per 100,000, the lowest in Latin America. The country had over 100 murders per 100,000 people in 2015.
"The historic lows come as the Bukele government continues a ruthless crackdown against the MS13 and Barrio 18 street gangs. The government has arrested (then) 70,000 people — over 1% of the country's population of 6.3 million — since the controversial crackdown began in early 2022, effectively wiping out gang activity in the process," the outlet reported.
The El Salvador Caucus' letter goes on to claim that its touristic industry is the fastest growing one in the Western Hemisphere, and that its economic growth "has had a direct positive impact on the United States and its interests," namely leading fewer people to migrate north due to lack of opportunities.
"As evidence of this root-cause success, migration to the United States from El Salvador has dropped more than 60 percent since President Bukele took office in 2019," the document claims.
"Through safety and lasting peace, prosperity for El Salvador is on the horizon. Of course, this prosperity depends in large part on the blessing of the international community, and this blessing is most powerful when coming from El Salvador's most powerful and benevolent neighbor: the United States of America," it concludes before again asking to lower the advisory.
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