[Adapted from the latest Radio Derb, now available exclusively on VDARE.com]

El Salvador got some attention last week. That’s unusual; it’s a small and inconsequential country, the size of New Jersey, population a bit less than Indiana.

It’s not an immediate neighbor of ours, either. If you want to walk to El Salvador, you’ll first have to trek through the length of Mexico and then Guatemala—around 1,200 miles from our border.

El Salvador is the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America. Their population pyramid looks like a Hershey’s Kiss—masses of kids, not many geezers—but they seem to have started getting fertility under control.

That’s all according to the CIA World Factbook. I always rely on the CIA for data. They never get anything wrong, do they?

So why is this totally inconsequential place, this Nowheresville, why is it in the news?

Well, the place was in a state of anarchy for many years. Those densely populated streets were ruled by criminal gangs who took what they wanted and killed anyone who opposed them. It got to a point when last March the nation’s legislature declared a state of emergency. That quickly became a war of the gangs versus the police and army.

The country’s president, name of Nayib Bukele, has been taking a strong line against the gangs. From the beginning of the state of emergency down to last week—eleven months—an estimated 65,000 gang members were arrested. That’s one percent of the entire population.

Last July President Bukele announced the construction of a huge new prison to house the gangbangers.

El Salvador is building a giant prison with space for 40,000 gang members, President Nayib Bukele said Thursday https://t.co/2Yhan7PTtO via @bpolitics @mjbristow @mdmcdonald

— Robert Jameson (@rhjameson) July 22, 2022

That prison was formally opened at the end of January. This week the government’s been moving convicts in. That’s why El Salvador’s in the news.

We’ve been seeing some astonishing video clips in which hundreds of men, wearing only boxer shorts and with their heads shaved, hands cuffed behind their backs, have been hustled in ranks and files through containment areas onto buses and off to the new mega-jail.

Those video clips have generated much approving commentary from conservative commentators here in the U.S.A. On Wednesday there was a striking opinion column by Gavin Wax and Nathan Berger of the New York Young Republican Club in Newsweek, of all places.

Read the latest from our President @GavinWax and Vice President Nathan Berger on the tremendous success that @nayibbukele has had in El Salvador and why Americans must emulate his approach.

Check it out here: https://t.co/mHpwEv6fEr

— New York Young Republican Club