US assures the government of El Salvador negotiated a vote with gangs

San Salvador, Feb 25 (Prensa Latina) The government of El Salvador negotiated with gangs a favorable vote for the Nuevas Ideas party in the 2021 elections, revealed a report from the United States, local media reported here today.

February 25, 2023
11:16

The reports indicate the US prosecution indicates that gang members negotiated a truce with Salvadoran governments from 2012 to 2021.

The newspaper El Mundo indicated the prosecution aired that the Mara Salvatruchas agreed to vote for Nuevas Ideas in 2021, and that in 2020, the Director of Penalties negotiated with gang members in prison.

The accusation that the United States Department of Justice presented against 13 Salvadoran gang members of the MS-13 before a New York court, specified that the Salvadoran governments negotiated truces with the criminals from 2012 to 2021, which includes the current administration.

The document added that “the national gang, the top leaders of the MS-13, have political influence in El Salvador,” which began to take shape in 2012 together with the rival gang, Barrio 18, through a truce with authorities from that moment.

Those talks were aimed at reducing homicides in El Salvador in exchange for transfers to less secure prisons, better prison conditions, spousal visits, cash payments, and other benefits and privileges.

The U.S. indictment says that the reduction in homicides continued until 2015, when the truce ended, although the gang leaders continued “their efforts to maintain the power and influence of MS-13 and obtain benefits, including, among other things, negotiations in relation to the presidential elections of February 2019”.

Quoted by El Mundo, US prosecutors say these meetings were organized by the Salvadoran government, and officials such as the director of Penal Centers and the director of Social Fabric.

The director of prisons, Osiris Luna, and the director of Tejido Social, Carlos Marroquín, were singled out in journalistic investigations for negotiating with gangs. The first, even, took gang members to prisons to negotiate.

The Washington indictment says that MS-13 agreed to use its political influence to direct its members, friends, and family “to support the Nuevas Ideas candidates in the 2021 elections for the legislative branch of El Salvador,” the court added.

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