Former US president Donald Trump alternated between jokes and allegations about Venezuela and El Salvador in his speech to the Republican National Convention Thursday, which focused heavily on fighting illegal immigration.
In familiar claims, contradicted by local reporting, Trump alleged that crime rates in Venezuela and El Salvador are down because the countries were sending criminals to the US.
“Caracas, Venezuela, really a dangerous place. But not anymore, because in Venezuela, crime is down 72%,” he said. “We will have our next Republican convention in Venezuela because it will be safe. Our cities will be so unsafe we will not be able to have it there.”
While reliable crime numbers are hard to obtain in Venezuela, statistics show violence has been going down — but not at the rate Trump claims. There’s also no evidence that the government is curbing crime by shipping criminals abroad. El Salvador’s strongman leader Nayib Bukele reduced crime dramatically by imprisoning about 2% of the population, making it the country with the highest prison population rate in the world.
In an apparent response to Trump’s remarks, Bukele, who has a friendly relationship with the former US president, posted on X: “Taking the high road.”
Source link : https://www.semafor.com/article/07/19/2024/what-a-new-trump-administration-could-mean-for-latin-america
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Publish date : 2024-07-19 14:08:00
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