Faride Raful visits El Salvador as Dominican Republic studies Bukele’s citizen security model

El Salvador.- As part of growing regional cooperation, Dominican Republic’s Minister of the Interior and Police, Faride Raful, visited El Salvador to meet with high-level security officials and discuss strategies for combating organized crime and transforming police forces. She met with El Salvador’s Minister of National Defense, René Francis Merino Monroy, and Minister of Justice and Public Security, Gustavo Villatoro, to explore ways to align efforts in public safety and strengthen regional collaboration.

Raful praised El Salvador as a regional model for security and invited officials to participate in the Eighth Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Public Security in the Americas (MISPA VIII), to be held in the Dominican Republic from July 16 to 17. The summit will focus on joint policies to enhance law enforcement, prison reform, violence prevention, and transnational crime-fighting strategies. She emphasized the importance of coordinated action and mutual learning among nations to confront modern security challenges.

During the visit, Raful highlighted the Dominican Republic’s advances in police professionalization, technological tools for crime prevention, and community engagement initiatives such as the Local Security, Citizenship, and Gender Roundtables.