Salvadorans cast their vote amid general election
Polls opened in El Salvador Sunday with victory in the bag for incumbent President Nayib Bukele thanks to his no-holds-barred war on gangs that has slashed homicide rates in a violence-weary nation.
For the first time since a civil war ended in 1992, the Central American country will vote under a state of emergency imposed for 42-year-old Bukele's gang crackdown.
Bukele, who polls as Latin America's most popular leader, is also expected to expand his hold over the legislative assembly in Sunday's vote.
His government has rounded up more than 75,000 gangsters -- real and suspected -- since a state of emergency came into effect in March 2022.
Thousands are held in a brand-new prison -- plugged as the largest in the Americas -- which the president built in a matter of months.
Last year, the country that was once one of the most dangerous in the world saw the murder rate plummet to its lowest level in three decades -- far below the world average.
As a result, Bukele enjoys approval ratings hovering around 90 percent despite concerns about rights violations, creeping authoritarianism and grumblings about the economy.
El Salvador's fearsome gangs took some 120,000 civilian lives in three decades, according to the government.
(Source: AFP)
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