In 2015, El Salvador held the highest homicide rate out of any country, labeling it as the “Murder Capital of the World”. In 2022, President Nayib Bukele enacted mano dura ("iron fist") policies amid high violence and associated with MS-13 and Barrio-18 - among other armed groups - in El Salvador. These policies have been understood by many as being responsible for dramatically reducing the homicide rate. Such policies, however, invoke the delicate balance between state security and civil liberties as well as a plethora of discourses on crime, safety, mass voter support, populism, and democracy.
My research reflects a qualitative analysis of crime and punishment discourse in El Salvador. Drawing from emergent best practices in social scientific inquiry of multimedia, I conduct a content analysis of videos and texts from YouTube and X (formerly known as Twitter). Using a non-probabilistic sampling method, this study offers a preliminary exploration of how crime, punishment, and the coercive capacity of the state is discursively framed under Salvadoran President Bukele’s administration. Additionally, I offer brief methodological and epistemic reflections on what it means to a) systematically code digital content; and b) study Salvadoran crime and policy through the prism of a US born and raised subject of Salvadoran heritage pertaining to the Salvadoran diaspora.