Press Secretariat: Picks up the police report of zero homicides on Monday, October 19, and credits the government's security strategy
Original post (full text, in its original language)
El Salvador inició la semana sin homicidios a escala nacional. El lunes 19 de octubre, la estrategia de seguridad del Gobierno del Presidente @nayibbukele volvió a dar resultados.— Secretaría de Prensa (@SecPrensaSV) · Oct 20, 2026 · 00:14 (El Salvador time)View original on X ↗
Our summary
Picks up the police report of zero homicides on Monday, October 19, and credits the government's security strategy.
Related
Police report zero homicides on Monday, October 19
The National Civil Police (PNC) said on its X account that Monday, October 19, ended "with 0 homicides in the country" (our translation). The Presidency's press office picked up the figure and credited the government's security strategy. Homicide figures come from the PNC; there is no independent count published for the same date.
Villatoro defends the 2027 security budget before the Assembly's Finance Committee
Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro appeared on Tuesday before the Legislative Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee to explain how this year's funds were used and the plans for 2027. According to the Security Ministry, the 2026 budget is 77.6% executed and the goal is to close the year at 99.3%. Villatoro said the country has had 1,350 days without homicides and that more than 80% of those days fell under the state of exception. He also said President Bukele's strategy is to "reduce arms purchases and invest that in education" (our translation), and that the 2027 goal is to go from 17 to 50 "digital twins" inside the police. ContraPunto noted that the minister did not detail how much developing and maintaining those artificial-intelligence tools costs.
Prosecutors report more than 10,500 convictions of gang members since the state of exception began
Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado told the Legislative Assembly committee reviewing the 2027 budget on Tuesday that prosecutors have obtained 10,561 convictions of gang members since March 2022. According to Delgado, most of those convicted belong to MS-13 and Barrio 18. The figures run through October 16. They are court convictions and are not the same as the total number of people detained under the state of exception.