How to pacify the world’s most violent region

To deal with the violence, Latin American leaders often resort to mano dura, the iron fist. They impose states of emergency, which may last indefinitely; they send the army into the streets; they carry out indiscriminate mass arrests. Mano dura has been championed by El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, who has locked up almost 80,000 people—over 1% of the population—in the past two years. The murder rate has plunged. Officials from across the region praise and seek to copy what they call the “Bukele model”. They shouldn’t.