EL SALVADOR
EXHIBITS IN SUPPORT OF RESPONDENT’S APPLICATION FOR ASYLUM,
WITHHOLDING OF REMOVAL, AND PROTECTION UNDER THE CONVENTION
AGAINST TORTURE (con’t, Part III)
[Note: This became such a large document that it has been split into three separate parts
(contained in three separate documents). To help with navigating it, below is a short guide to the
contents of the three parts. The section headings are often best accessed by using Word’s “Find”
function.]
Guide to Contents:
Part I:
Country Condition Documentation (U.S. Dept of State, UNCHR, Amnesty International, Human
Rights Watch, etc. with general descriptions of country conditions)
News and Academic Articles, Expert Declarations and Reports, Divided by Topic
-- Violence Against Women/Domestic Violence
-- Violence Against Children/Child Abuse
-- Violence Against LGBT Persons
Part II:
(Continued) News and Academic Articles, Expert Declarations and Reports, etc.
--Violence by Gangs
Part III:
(Continued) News and Academic Articles, Expert Declarations and Reports, etc.
--Police/Judicial Corruption
POLICE/JUDICIAL CORRUPTION
[Note: Many of the articles under topics above—especially “Violence By Gangs”-- refer to
corruption/impunity, etc. in addition to the articles below; and vice-versa re “violence by gangs”
shown also in topic below.]
#. Leonardo Goi, New investigations target El Salvador Ex-President’s cousin, 4
May 2017, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/newinvestigations-target-el-salvador-ex-president-cousin ....
“Authorities in El Salvador are investigating the cousin of an incarcerated former president,
another sign that the Central American country may be deepening its drive to root out elite
corruption.
“Herbert Ernesto Saca Vides has been placed under investigation by the Salvadoran Attorney
General's Office in connection with a case against his cousin and former President Antonio
‘Tony’ Saca, reported Factum.
“Herbert served as Tony's political advisor during his 2004 to 2009 term in office, a role he
eventually resumed under the jailed ex-president's successor, Mauricio Funes.
“Tony Saca was arrested in October 2016 on corruption-related charges. Together with other
associates, the former president has been accused of embezzling over $240 million of public
funds.
“Between February 1 and February 24, 2017, El Salvador's Attorney General's Office asked the
Supreme Court to issue twelve judicial requests to foreign countries in order to obtain more
evidence on former President Saca's case. In eight of these, the Attorney General requested
official information on his cousin Herbert, Factum reported.
“This is not the first time Herbert Saca has come under the authorities' spotlight. Shortly after
his cousin's arrest in October 2016, police forces searched some of Herbert's companies,
including a car dealership allegedly implicated in illicit sales to former members of the expresident's administration.
“The decision to investigate Herbert Saca provides additional evidence that El Salvador's fight
against corrupt elites might be getting more aggressive.
“The move follows the arrest of José Adán Salazar Umaña, alias ‘Chepe Diablo,’ the alleged
leader of the Texis Cartel who is suspected of having ties to numerous Salvadoran elites,
including current Vice President Óscar Ortiz. In addition, an InSight Crime investigation found
evidence to suggest that former Attorney General Luis Martínez had obstructed efforts to
investigate and prosecute Chepe Diablo and his associates.
“According to well-informed sources, the same may have been the case in probes of Herbert
Saca that took place under Martínez.
“‘It is no secret that Herbert Saca was protected by Martínez, and that the Attorney General's
Office deliberately avoided investigating the evidence provided by the police,’ Factum journalist
César Fagoaga told InSight Crime.
“Martínez was arrested in August 2016 on judicial corruption charges. Current Attorney
General Douglas Meléndez took office in January 2016, and has appeared intent on reopening
investigations seemingly stymied by his predecessor.
“Previous reporting by InSight Crime suggests that Herbert Saca was a crucial link between El
Salvador's elites and the country's underworld. He has been tied to various people and groups
under investigation by authorities, and his name has been connected to two major drug
trafficking groups, the Perrones and the Texis Cartel.
“Admittedly, as far as Factum was told, the Attorney General has placed Herbert Saca under
investigation for money laundering, and not for alleged links with organized crime. Still, the
opening of the investigation is a sign that El Salvador's anti-corruption drive may be expanding,
though due to weaknesses in the country's judicial system, its ultimate impact remains unclear.”
#. Charles Orta, El Salvador self-defense group poses potential security concerns,
26 April 2017, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/el-salvadorself-defense-group-poses-potential-security-concerns ...
“A self-defense group operating in a rural community of El Salvador is asking for formal legal
recognition, a reminder of security concerns elsewhere in the region caused by similar non-state
actors taking justice into their own hands.
“The group, based in the town of San Nicolás Lempa in the department of San Vicente, is made
up of about 60 citizens. The group's members are seeking legal recognition in order to be able to
operate openly and to gain access to more arms and equipment, La Prensa Gráfica reported.
“The origins of the self-defense group date back to 2015, when former combatants from the
country's 1979-1992 civil war rearmed themselves following the appearance of Barrio
18 members in the community and the assassination of a community leader and his daughter,
presumably by the gang.
“Since that time, the self-defense group has worked somewhat surreptitiously with the armed
forces and the National Civil Police (PNC) of El Salvador to carry out joint operations against
gang members, the news outlet reported.
“Regardless of whether or not the self-defense group receives legal recognition, its presence and
the nature of its actions reflect a muddled security situation in the region that often requires
officials to contend with non-state actors seeking to establish their own rule of law. This is often
fueled by perceptions of state neglect and the belief that authorities cannot or will not protect
local communities.
“El Salvador, which has a long history of death squads, has seen a revival of the phenomenon in
recent years, believed to be caused by a pronounced lack of state control in many gangdominated areas. The rise in extrajudicial killings in El Salvador has been accompanied by a
worrying trend that police are abusing lethal force and killing with impunity, and reports that
security forces are working with vigilante groups compound these concerns.
“Should El Salvador grant legal recognition to self-defense groups, the country might find itself
in the same situation that Mexico did when that country provided tacit recognition to self-defense
groups in the state of Michoacán. In that case, violence and extrajudicial killings were
exacerbated as vigilantism proliferated and self-defense groups began to engage in illicit
criminal activities. Even if self-defense groups in El Salvador avoided criminalization, Mexico's
example illustrates that self-defense groups are not a long-term replacement for strong, formal
state institutions.”
#. James Frederick, Elderly and On the Run from El Salvador’s Street Gangs, 7
April 2017, available at
http://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2017/4/58e4e5c24/elderly-run-el-salvadors-streetgangs.html ............
“Margarita, who made a living selling bread from a small street stand in her hometown in
western El Salvador, recognized many of the gangsters who came to her door that night. She had
maintained a tenuous peace with them for years, giving the young men bread to stay in their
good graces.
“But that all changed when the gang began shaking down her 37-year-old son, Jose, the owner
of a small convenience store. He had failed to keep up with the ‘war tax’ they demanded and was
now hiding in her house
“‘My son? I don’t know. He’s not here,’ Margarita responded coolly.
“Jose quietly ran into the back room, hopped out a window, and sprinted down the alleyway. He
left the neighbourhood and did not come back.
“‘I was standing there lying to them, but I just asked God to give me strength even though my
heart was going ‘Thump, thump, thump,’’ she says, pounding her chest.
“Her deception worked. But the next day they were back with a threat: ‘You either hand him
over or we’ll get rid of you to get back at him.’
“That was the breaking point. Margarita knew she had to leave. With just a small bag of clothes,
the 72-year-old left before dawn, headed to the nearest bus station and left El Salvador for good.
By that night, she was at a river marking the Mexico-Guatemala border, which she crossed on a
makeshift raft.
“‘I didn’t know anything about Mexico when I came here,’ she says. ‘I didn’t know anyone. I
didn’t know I’d have to cross a river. I knew nothing!’
“A growing number of men, women and children are fleeing the street gangs or maras, whose
reach extends throughout El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, where they commit crimes
ranging from drug dealing, extortion and robbery to rape and murder.
“Among those seeking asylum in Mexico from the so-called Northern Triangle countries of
Central America are more and more elderly people like Margarita, who face distinct challenges.
“‘Starting from scratch in a new country is difficult, but it can be particularly difficult for elderly
refugees,’ says Mark Manly, UNHCR’s representative in Mexico. ‘Many are pillars of their
family and the community but others face particular problems because of illness or the wearand-tear of old age.’
“Since reaching Mexico in mid-2016, Margarita has been granted refugee status and is now a
Mexican resident. Through financial support from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, she has
been able to pay rent and get groceries from a food bank.
“‘I saw people my age just fall over and die in El Salvador. You live under so much stress all the
time,’ she says, noting the new lease on life that a fresh start in southern Mexico has given her…
“While simple, her small, one-room house – with a slim mattress, a bedside lamp, and a small
dresser - is nevertheless homely.
“To keep herself busy, she helps out with child care for a young couple and their one-year-old
daughter who live next door. She has also found part-time work as a housekeeper for another
family nearby, which gives her enough income to get by, and she one day dreams of having a
stall in the local market.
“Meanwhile, Margarita is striving for something she did not have the chance to do in El
Salvador: study. She left school at the age of eight but is now getting back into the classroom 64
years later….
“Through a programme started by UNHCR and Mexico’s Secretariat of Public Education,
Margarita and several other refugees who have missed out on schooling are studying two days a
week to receive a primary school certificate.”
#. Héctor Silva Ávalos, El Salvador Arrests Chepe Diablo, Investigates Ties with
Vice-President, 5 April 2017, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/newsanalysis/el-salvador-arrests-chepe-diablo-investigates-ties-vice-president ..........
“El Salvador's Attorney General's Office arrested José Adán Salazar Umaña, alias ‘Chepe
Diablo,’ the alleged leader of the Texis Cartel, the most important drug trafficking and money
laundering organization in the country. The arrest raises new questions about the links between
Salazar Umaña and powerful politicians in El Salvador, including current Vice President Óscar
Ortiz.
“Salazar Umaña was arrested at noon on April 4 during a police operation that involved raids
on some 50 properties, including hotels, gas stations and shops that either belong to Chepe
Diablo or his associates. According to the authorities, the companies were used by the Texis
Cartel to evade taxes or launder money that came from illegal activities.
“Attorney General Douglas Meléndez said three of Salazar Umaña's relatives were also
arrested. The other suspected leaders of the organization, however, remain fugitives from justice.
“On the morning of April 5, the director of the National Civil Police (Policia Nacional Civil PNC) confirmed that two main suspects evaded capture during the operation: Juan Umaña
Samayoa, the mayor of the northwestern town of Metapán, and Wilfredo Guerra, the president of
the Gumarsal grain company that has been linked to Chepe Diablo's business network.
“The raids and arrests carried out on April 4 are the result of an investigation reopened by
Meléndez after his predecessor, former Attorney General Luis Martínez, dropped a money
laundering investigation that had implicated Salazar Umaña, Samayoa and Guerra, as well as
several of the companies raided yesterday.
“In 2014, InSight Crime reported that Martínez had ordered attorneys to destroy evidence, close
the case and even return documents that incriminated alleged members of the Texis Cartel.
Attorney General Meléndez stressed that he had to revive these investigations when he assumed
power last year. Martínez has been arrested for an unrelated corruption case.
“Yet Luis Martínez was not Salazar Umaña's only powerful ally. Chepe Diablo also had ties
to El Salvador's current vice president and a likely presidential candidate for the 2019
elections, Óscar Ortiz, who is considered one of the most powerful men in the ruling party, the
Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación
Nacional - FMLN).
“In 2000, Salazar Umaña, Ortiz and Rogelio Cervantes, a hotel businessman who had financed
FMLN campaigns, founded the real estate company Desarrollos Montecristo. Through
Montecristo, Ortiz was able to purchase and sell properties located in the department of San
Vicente, in the center of the country, and on an island close to the Jiquilisco bay area.
“When he participated in founding the company, Ortiz was already mayor of Santa Tecla, a
suburb of the capital San Salvador, and police authorities already believed Salazar Umaña was
a member of an illegal drug trafficking and money laundering organization.
“As investigations by the press published in 2016 revealed the connection between Chepe Diablo
and Ortiz, the latter at first minimized the matter, and eventually lied when he claimed he hadn't
seen Salazar since 2004 -- even though a picture published by El Faro portrayed the two sitting
next to each other at a soccer stadium in 2014.
“The relationship between Ortiz and Salazar Umaña developed through soccer. Chepe
Diablo was the president of El Salvador's soccer federation and manager of the Isidro Metapán
soccer club, whose facilities were also raided on April 4, while Ortiz is currently manager of the
Santa Tecla soccer team. Attorney General Meléndez confirmed that Isidro Metapán is part of
the money laundering investigation.
“Yesterday's raids were also carried out in the municipality of Metapán; in Gumarsal plants in
San Juan Opico, in the country's southwest; in the Figueroa Cruz law firm, which authorities
believe links the Texis Cartel with a construction company; and in several hotels owned by
Hoteles de El Salvador (Hotesa), which was accused of tax evasion in 2014.
“All this appears to be part of Salazar Umaña's network, a business consortium whose revenues
were valued at an estimated $60 million in 2016, according to calculations that InSight Crime
based on information provided by El Salvador's Treasury Department.
“Additionally, Gumarsal has been a state supplier since 2009, when former President Mauricio
Funes, also a member of the FMLN, took office.
“On the other hand, Samayoa is a mayor from the rightist National Concertation Party (Partido
de Concertación Nacional), which also counts as a member Congressman Reynaldo Cardoza,
who was recently prosecuted for illicit enrichment, though he was absolved by the judge.
Another political operator linked to Samayoa is Herbert Saca, the cousin of former president
Antonio Saca who is also close with ex-President Funes.
“During investigations into the Texis Cartel and its members in 2009, El Salvador's Police
Intelligence Center (Centro de Inteligencia Policial – CIP) found Salazar Umaña and Samayoa
were linked with police officers as well as other criminals, including Roberto ‘Burro’
Herrera, currently incarcerated for car theft.
“While the current investigations are only related to money laundering, as Attorney General
Meléndez clarified, the Texis Cartel has been linked to drug trafficking for at least a decade.
Incidentally, in March 2017, Howard Cotto, director of El Salvador's police, said that 160
kilograms of cocaine seized in the outskirts of San Salvador were connected with the
organization. Other police and legal authorities also told InSight Crime that the Salvadoran
group is allegedly linked with drug trafficking networks in Guatemala and Colombia.
“As a result of his alleged participation in money laundering and drug trafficking activities, José
Adán Salazar Umaña has been one of El Salvador's most investigated men. But the political
connections Chepe Diablo and the Texis Cartel could count on also turned them into some of the
most protected targets in the country.
“When the cartel began to intensify its trafficking and laundering operations during the past
decade, police and other officials protected the group, according to an investigation by El Faro.
“In 2014, when the Obama administration listed Salazar Umaña as an international drug
kingpin, former Attorney General Martínez buried the only evidence that could have brought him
to court.
“Again in 2014, when the tax evasion case allowed authorities to connect Salazar Umaña with
other members of the business consortium and the activities carried out by Gumarsal, Samayoa
and Guerra tried to distance themselves from Chepe Diablo.
“The pressure of the United States is undeniably part of the reason for the recent arrests, and
could boost efforts to establish an international anti-corruption mission in El Salvador, similar
to those already established in its neighbors Honduras and Guatemala….
“During field research last week in San Salvador, InSight Crime was told that the Attorney
General's Office was preparing some raids and arrest warrants to be executed shortly. The office
appeared on April 4 to make the first arrests and take first steps toward seizing assets belonging
to Chepe Diablo and Texis.
“It looks as though the first obstacle has been overcome. But it remains to be seen how far the
Attorney General's investigation will be able to go, and how El Salvador's corrupt justice system
will handle the case. And of course, it is still not clear how Chepe Diablo's powerful friends will
react.
“At the time of this article's publication, Vice President Ortiz had not commented on the
arrests.”
#. David Gagne, El Salvador Ex-Mayor Ordered Gang to Kill Local Official,
Police Say, 23 Mar 2017, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/elsalvador-ex-mayor-ordered-gang-kill-local-official ....
“Authorities in El Salvador say a former mayor who was arrested last year had ordered gang
members to kill a municipal official, revealing the dangers of too much interaction between
gangs and city hall.
“The Salvadoran Attorney General's Office arrested 21 members of the Barrio 18 gang for their
involvement in the murder of René Antonio Díaz Orellana, a local councilman in the
municipality of Apopa, reported La Prensa Gráfica.
“Police investigators say three of the recently detained gang members attempted to kill Díaz
Orellana in 2013 on orders from Apopa's mayor at the time, Elías Hernández. When that attack
was unsuccessful, Hernández instructed three other gang members to carry out the hit. The latter
set of gang members were reportedly receiving benefits from the mayor.
“Hernández was arrested in early June of last year for his alleged ties to the gang. Díaz
Orellana was killed later that month.
“According to the police, Hernández ordered Díaz Orellana's murder because he failed to meet
the gang's demands for extortion payments and because the two had had political disputes.
“The gang structure is also believed to be responsible for the killing of a police sergeant in
October 2015, as well as several other crimes.
“The newest allegation against Hernández suggests his relationship with the gang, which
initially appeared to have some altruistic elements, eventually became a vehicle to advance his
personal interests and eliminate political enemies.
“Relationships between mayors' offices and gangs, while never an ideal scenario, have the
potential to bring some much-needed relief to communities living in areas dominated by the
gangs. According to the investigation that led to his arrest last year, Hernández sought a pact
with the Barrio 18 in order to reduce the gang's extortion of shop owners. The mayor also
wanted Apopa to become a ‘sanctuary’ city -- meaning free of homicides -- and for the gang
members to turn in their arsenal of weapons, according to witness testimony.
“But the gangs had demands of their own. In exchange for not extorting the store owners, the
mayor imposed new taxes and sent some of the increased revenue to the gang, witnesses say. The
mayor also allegedly allowed Barrio 18 members to use police cars to move drug shipments, and
some gang members to collect government salaries.
“While the quid pro quo between Hernández and the Barrio 18 was obviously of a criminal
nature, there is a sizable gray area when it comes to officials engaging with gangs. Indeed, two
separate videos released last year show El Salvador's former security minister and current
interior minister meeting with national gang leaders.
“Given the gangs' increasingly political outlook, the Apopa case is unlikely to be the last that
forces the authorities to grapple with this issue.”
#. Sarah Esther Maslin, How an innocent man wound up dead in El Salvador’s
criminal justice system,16 Mar 2017, available at
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/how-an-innocent-man-wound-
up-dead-in-el-salvadors-justice-system/2017/03/16/7144e7fc-dd13-11e6-8902610fe486791c_story.html?utm_term=.66a7bde24641 …..
“SAN JUAN TALPA, El Salvador — On a dusky evening last spring, Jorge Alberto Martínez
Chávez was tossed into the hell that is El Salvador’s prison system: a holding cell barely bigger
than the bed of a pickup, where more than 50 prisoners were crammed together, some on the
sweat-soaked floor and others spilling out of thin hammocks crisscrossed from ground to ceiling.
“The air was hot and humid, and prisoners’ half-naked bodies reeked of urine and ulcers from a
recent outbreak of bacteria, according to a guard. A few weeks later, Martínez collapsed,
foaming at the mouth. He was the fifth inmate from that cell to die in four months.
“He never should have been there in the first place. Police, prosecutors and a judge mistook him
for a different Jorge Alberto Martínez Chávez, a man eight years younger with a gang tattoo
across his chest and a criminal history that includes charges of extortion, illegal gun possession
and murder.
“Martínez’s death exposes deep flaws in El Salvador’s justice system, with implications that go
well beyond this tiny nation of 6 million. At a time when thousands of Central Americans
are fleeing toward the United States, and border control is at the top of President Trump’s
agenda, the weaknesses of this region’s courts and cops have assumed outsize importance. The
same institutions that allowed an innocent man to die have failed to prevent street gangs from
turning the country into one of the most violent in the hemisphere.
“The U.S. government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years to help Central
American countries capture and prosecute gang leaders and corrupt officials. Although there
have been some advances, the system remains dysfunctional. Police in El Salvador frequently
don’t use forensic evidence, prosecutors handle several hundred cases at once, and prisons are
so bad that the Supreme Court has ruled them unconstitutional.
“The combination of these failings — during a crackdown in the streets and a lockdown in the
prisons — was fatal for Jorge Alberto Martínez Chávez, 37, a bus dispatcher, volunteer firstresponder and father of two with little in common with the fugitive authorities sought….
“The crime that would land Martínez in jail occurred in October 2014 in San Pedro Masahuat, a
town with cobblestone streets in the region of La Paz an hour southeast of San Salvador. Five
men with guns ambushed a sixth man, who ducked behind cars to avoid the bullets. He survived,
and later described his assailants to prosecutor Guillermo Molina: four low-level gang members
and a leader called ‘Wisper.’
“The victim knew Wisper’s name: Jorge Chávez. He had an idea where he lived — a sheet-metal
shack on the edge of town — and his age: about 26. Chávez was covered in gang tattoos,
including ‘MS’ (for “Mara Salvatrucha”) across his chest and an eagle on his back.
The prosecutor’s investigation was based almost entirely on the victim’s testimony. This is
common in El Salvador. Despite U.S.-led efforts to introduce scientific evidence to the judicial
system — starting during El Salvador’s 1980-1992 civil war and continuing with the
current Alliance for Prosperity aid package, which includes a $4 million forensic training
program — reform has been sluggish, according to legal scholars and watchdog groups.
“‘The legal system was created to serve the oligarchy, and continues to favor the rich and
powerful,’ said anthropologist Juan José Martínez. These days, corrupt business executives and
politicians often escape scrutiny while gang violence overwhelms police and prosecutors.
“Authorities in San Pedro Masahuat caught the four lower-level gang members but couldn’t find
the notorious Wisper. They photographed his house but, according to the case file, didn’t do
much else to locate him.
“Prosecutors needed more details, so they consulted a federal database of citizens and learned
of a 37-year-old man named Jorge Alberto Martínez Chávez. A week later, on Dec. 17,
prosecutors checked online prison records and found another, 29-year-old man with the same
name.
“The differences between the two men were sweeping: Not only were they eight years apart but
they hailed from different towns. The younger man was a Mara Salvatrucha gang member who
had been imprisoned for extortion in 2010 and was wanted in connection with several slayings.
He went by Jorge Chávez — the same name offered by the victim.
“The older man was known as Jorge Martínez. He had no criminal record.
“Despite the disparities, prosecutors filed charges against 37-year-old Jorge Martínez. Molina
said the witness identified Martínez in a photo lineup. However, the same witness later identified
the other man, Jorge Chávez, in another photo reel.
“This was the start of the chain that ended in Martínez’s death.
“In early 2015, Wisper was accused of killing two young men in San Pedro Masahuat. After a
series of blunders, these charges, too, would end up following the other Jorge Alberto Martínez
Chávez to the grave.
“Until April 25, 2016, he had no idea about any of this.
“That day, a typical scorcher in San Salvador, capital police stopped Martínez at the gas station
where he worked dispatching buses; they later said he had looked suspicious. They ran his name
through a database and couldn’t believe their luck. They thought they had stumbled upon
Wisper, a gang leader and one of the 100 most sought-after criminals in the country, and
promptly detained him.
“Although Martínez was arrested on a single, erroneous warrant, when Judge Daniel Ortiz in
San Pedro Masahuat received news that ‘Wisper’ had been captured, he tacked on the double
murder. He didn’t notice the discrepancies with the description of that suspect.
“‘We judges aren’t investigators,’ Ortiz said. He never saw Martínez in person but sent him
to jail anyway. With heavy caseloads, judges often don’t see prisoners until they have spent
weeks or months locked up — in Martínez’s case, in a disease-ridden, gang-controlled police
holding cell in the nearby town of San Juan Talpa.
“Martínez kept insisting he was innocent. He swore to his public defender, Sánchez, that he was
not a gang member, stripping off his shirt to show he had no tattoos. His job as a bus dispatcher
required him to travel through territory dominated by the 18th Street gang, which would have
been impossible if he were a Mara Salvatrucha member….
“And then time ran out. Martínez, who had spent a month in jail without ever seeing a judge,
died May 25 in a San Salvador hospital….
“According to the Institute for Criminal Policy Research, El Salvador’s prisons are the most
jam-packed in the Western Hemisphere except for Haiti’s. The populations began to swell in the
mid-2000s as a result of President Francisco Flores’s ‘Strong Hand’ policy, a series of toughon-crime measures that included increased police raids and longer sentences. Now a prison
system built for 10,000 inmates houses more than 37,000, not including about 5,000 held in
police jails.
“‘The ‘Strong Hand’ policy didn’t consider what would happen when all these people got locked
up,’ said Rodil Hernández, the national prisons director. Gangs are using the prison system as a
rent-free corporate office, directing murders and extortion rings with phones sneaked in by
guards and visitors.
“Last March, Hernández declared a state of emergency in seven prisons. Since then, thousands
of prisoners have been barred from visits with relatives, doctors and judges. Human rights
advocates have documented a spike in tuberculosis and other contagious diseases…
“Judicial processes have ground to a halt, and the total prison population has increased 10
percent in the past six months, sending the government scrambling to build new penitentiaries.
“On Feb. 9, legislators extended the lockdown until 2018, crediting it with a 20 percent drop in
killings over the past year.
“El Salvador’s Supreme Court found in an investigation that prisoners have as little as three
square feet of space, lack adequate food, water and medical care, and could spend months or
years locked up without trial….
“Imprisoned gang members sometimes kill non-gang cellmates as a way to ensure they don’t
tattle once they leave jail….”
#. Associated Press, El Salvador arrests 10 in graft case involving ex-president,16
Feb. 2017, available at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-4232054/ElSalvador-arrests-10-graft-case-involving-ex-president.html ....
“SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) - Police in El Salvador say they've detained 10 people
connected to advertising and media companies in a corruption case in which former President
Tony Saca and others are implicated.
“National police Commissioner Howard Cotto says those arrested Thursday are suspected of
money laundering. They include Saca's brother-in-law and a prominent publicist.
“Saca has declared his innocence in the case.
“He and several close associates are being prosecuted for the alleged diversion of at least $246
million in government funds. Prosecutors say some $116 million of that amount was transferred
to private accounts of presidential employees and later to other accounts and businesses, some
of them belonging to Saca.
“The 51-year-old Saca was president from 2004. He also faces a civil prosecution for alleged
illicit enrichment.
#. Leonardo Goi, El Salvador Intensifies Attempts to Break Gangs’ Control Over
Prisons, 16 Feb 2017, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/elsalvador-intensifies-attempts-break-gangs-control-over-prisons ..........
“Authorities in El Salvador have announced a massive transfer of
incarcerated MS13 and Barrio 18 members to a single prison facility, in an effort to reverse the
gangs' consolidation of power within the penitentiary system.
“Nearly 3,600 incarcerated gang members will be transferred to the Izalco prison in western El
Salvador, reported El Mundo. The inmates are members of the MS13 and its rival the Barrio 18,
the country's two largest gang structures.
“The director of the country's prisons, Rodil Hernández, said the process will begin on February
21 with the transfer of nearly 1,300 inmates, while the remaining 2,300 are scheduled to arrive
within the following 45 days. The decision aims to reduce the chronic overcrowding of El
Salvador's prisons and sever contact between imprisoned gang members and the outside world.
“Meanwhile, Justice and Security Minister Mauricio Ramírez Landaverde has announced that
the government will begin a rehabilitation and reintegration program for gang members who
reside both in and out of the prisons.
“How to tackle the threats posed by imprisoned gang members is a question that El Salvador has
long grappled with. A forthcoming report by InSight Crime documents how, over a period of
decades, the prisons became a center of operations for the country's largest and most violent
street gangs.
“Members of the MS13 and Barrio 18 gangs began to arrive in the country's prison towards the
end of the civil war between the government and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front
(Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional - FMLN).
“Thanks to a policy known as "Mano Dura" (Iron Fist), the country's prison population began to
swell, as did the number of incarcerated gang members. The number of inmates across the
country rose from 7,754 in 2000 to 35,879 in October 2016. By 2015, a third of the total inmate
population were gang members.
“Clashes between MS13 and Barrio 18 inmates became so frequent and violent that by the end
of 2000, authorities decided to assign inmates to segregated prisons. The separation of the gangs
into their own facilities significantly reduced violence, but it also allowed them to tighten control
over prisons. The prisons effectively became the gangs' headquarters, where they could recruit
new members and grow their power.
“Conscious of these threats, authorities have recently begun to move away from the segregation
policy. The planned transfers to Izlaco of both MS13 and Barrio 18 members is a reflection of
this shift in strategy.
“These changes have already had a major impact on the demographics of Izalco. For years a
prison reserved for members of the Barrio 18 gang, dozens of MS13 members were transferred
there in 2015, including Antonio Carrillo Alfaro, alias "El Chory." Chory was a mid-level leader
of the MS13 who led a rebellion within the gang before being assassinated on January 6, 2016
on orders from the MS13's top command.”
#. Nina Lakhani, ‘We fear soldiers more than gangsters’: El Salvador’s ‘iron fist’
policy turns deadly, 6 Feb 2017, available at
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/06/el-salvador-gangs-police-violencedistrito-italia .....
“A group of teenage boys were celebrating a birthday with cake and cold beers, larking around
and uploading selfies to Facebook. It should have been an ordinary scene played out among old
friends, but in El Salvador, these are anything but ordinary times.
“Shortly before 11pm, soldiers with rifles quietly descended from the surrounding hills and
cornered the youngsters in an alleyway. Most of the teens were were thrown face-down on the
ground – but two boys ran, and the soldiers gave chase.
“Juanita Ortega was getting ready for bed when she realised that her son Pablo, 19, was in
danger.
“‘Bang! Bang! Bang! I heard gun shots and ran outside to look for my son,’ said Ortega, who
asked that she and her son be referred to with pseudonyms for fear of reprisal.
“‘They were hitting the boys on the ground with their rifle butts. I shouted to my neighbours –
‘Get up! Come quickly! They’re going to kill our children!’ – and then I realised my son wasn’t
there,’ she said.
“Pablo made a break for the dusty main street, but a bullet caught him in the thigh and he fell to
the ground. Soldiers dragged him to an overgrown patch of waste ground nearby, where he was
later found dead, apparently strangled with his own shirt.
“Almost immediately, a white double cabin pick-up arrived at the scene. A different group of
soldiers were dropped off, and the unit which had carried out the attack was driven away,
witnesses said.
“Forensic scientists arrived several hours later to take away the body. No witnesses were
interviewed. Morning newspapers reported the incident as the death of another gang member.
“Distrito Italia is an impoverished neighbourhood just north of San Salvador whose
cosmopolitan name belies a grim reality. For years, it has been dominated by the Mara
Salvatrucha (MS13), one of the country’s two main street gangs, who for the past 25 years have
been locked in a battle to control territory.
“But the street gangs are not the only factions involved in the violence. State security forces have
laid virtual siege to gang-controlled communities where being a young male is enough to get you
arrested, tortured or killed.
“The government’s promise to apply a mano dura…policy against gangs seems to have become
a shoot-to-kill policy under which anyone living in a gang-controlled neighbourhood risks
falling victim to extrajudicial violence.
“While some of the victims have been gang members, others have nothing to do with organised
crime. Pablo Ortega had only finished high school a few days before he was killed.
“‘I saw soldiers covering the pool of blood with earth where my son fell,’ sobbed Ortega, inside
her modest home. ‘The authorities say he was killed in a shootout with gang members, but it’s a
lie, he was never a gangster.’
“The interview is interrupted by the sound of a gun being loaded just outside the window. Two
police officers saunter past with their hands ready on their pistols; dogs bark, doors slam shut.
“‘I’m scared, you have to go, I have another son,’ pleads Ortega. ‘It’s like during the [civil]
war, they’re killing young people but talking about it can get you killed as well.’
“El Salvador’s 12-year war between leftwing guerrillas and US-supported military dictatorships
left 80,000 dead, 8,000 missing and a million displaced in 12 years.
“The conflict ended in 1992, but peace never came to this small Central American country:
although the murder rate dropped 20% last year, El Salvador remains the most deadly country
in the world after Syria.
“During the civil war, the conflict was described in cold war terms: the government described its
enemies as terrorists. Nowadays, the violence continues, but the language has changed: a law
passed last year established the gangs as ‘terrorist groups’.
‘In the 1980s, having long hair and carrying a book made you a target; being young still makes
you a target today,’ said Jeanne Rikkers, director of research at the violence prevention NGO
Cristosal.
“Yet it could have been different. After years of escalating violence, the murder rate almost
halved in mid-2012 after government-appointed negotiators helped facilitate a truce between
MS13 andd its main rival Barrio, 18. The deal was imperfect, but for the first time in years, there
was some hope of peace.
“By mid-2014, however, the truce had fallen apart amid broken promises, political rivalries and
tough-on-crime electioneering.
“The FLMN – founded by former rebels – won a second term in government and soon declared
war on the gangs. In January 2015 vice-president Oscar Ortíz gave security forces the greenlight to use deadly force against suspected gang members ‘without any fear of suffering
consequences’.
“And they have. Police records obtained by the investigative news website El Faroshow that 693
alleged gang members were killed and 255 were injured in 1,074 armed confrontations between
January 2015 and August 2016.
“In the same period, 24 police and soldiers were killed. That imbalance points to the excessive
use of lethal force and summary execution, said Ignacio Cano, a police violence expert at the
State University of Rio de Janeiro.
“In contrast, police officers arrested just 88 suspected gang members in the whole of 2013 and
2014.
“Rikkers said: ‘The public discourse is warlike. It focuses on eliminating gang members – not
crime. [But] the mano dura approach hasn’t worked and won’t suddenly start to work in the
future. In the meantime, we are turning a blind eye to grave human rights abuses.’
“Those who speak out are often targeted themselves.
“Pablo’s murder was among dozens of suspected unlawful killings documented by Dany
Romero, a former MS13 member who dedicated himself to violence prevention after his release
from prison in 2006.
“Last July, he was arrested, accused of using his NGO as a front for gang activities, and
detained in maximum-security on terrorism charges.
“‘Dany had a lot of information that could be a big problem for the state,’ said Arnau Baulenas,
legal director at the Central American University’s Institute of Human Rights.
“Such cases mean that victims’ relatives are wary of speaking out.
“Since her son’s death last year, Ortega has often seen the same unit of soldiers in her
neighbourhood, but has not dared denounce them to the authorities, for fear of putting her
surviving son at risk. ‘I tell you sincerely, we fear the soldiers more than we ever feared the
gangsters,’ said Ortega.
“Those who monitor the killings say that similarities between the cases cannot be dismissed.
“In June, another young man in Distrito Italia was killed in similar circumstances.
“The family of Jaime Velásquez, 22, admit that he was a gang member….
“One night in June 2016, he was on lookout duty, when the soldiers arrived. He was shot seven
times and left lying in the street. Witnesses told the Guardian there was no gun battle, and no
soldiers were injured. A pick-up truck arrived to take the soldiers away. There was no police
investigation.
“‘The soldiers don’t protect us, they kills us like dogs,’ said Velásquez’s older sister.
“Prosecutors say many of the abuse allegations are concocted by the gangs, and deny being
lenient on security forces.
“‘To date, no investigation has made us think that there is a policy of extrajudicial killings or
death squads,’ said Allan Hernandez, director of specialist units….
“San Miguel Tepezontes is a picturesque rural town 20 miles east of the capital, situated high
above Lake Ilopango. It doesn’t have Distrito Italia’s air of menace, but police say two rival
gangs operate here, and last September dozens were arrested in a round-up of alleged MS13
members .
“One of them was Cristian Hernández Beltrán, a car mechanic.
“Nine months earlier Hernández, then 19, had been detained along with a friend by police
officers, and driven to an isolated hillside a few miles away. Hernandez was given electric
shocks, and beaten round the head with a rock; his fingernails were pulled out.
“His unformed attackers threw him into the back of the police truck assuming he was dead, and
drove a few miles along a country road before dumping him in the undergrowth. Somehow he
managed to crawl into the road and was discovered by a neighbour.
“His mother, Marcela Beltran, found him in hospital in an induced coma with grave injuries to
his skull and brain. Hernandez didn’t recognise her for a month. He has permanent damage to
his vision, hearing, sense of taste and balance, and needs reconstructive surgery to repair his
skull.
“Beltran, 34, reported the attack immediately, and managed to convince the police to launch a
full investigation. But her determination has come at a high price.
“The day after Cristian was released from hospital, the perpetrators came to the family home.
Over the next few months, he was followed, detained and beaten again, until finally, in
September, he was arrested again and accused of extortion and abetting gang murders.
“In a success of sorts, three police officers and two soldiers have been accused of Cristian’s
attempted murder. But the teenager remains in prison on charges of belonging to a terrorist
group.
“‘My son isn’t a gangster, he’s been persecuted to make me shut up. Cristian is scared they will
kill me, they could kill us all, but I won’t stop – the police cannot be untouchable,’ said Beltran.”
#. Quentin King and David Gagne, El Salvador, UN agree to anti-impunity
program, 26 Jan 2017, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/elsalvador-anti-corruption-body ....
“The United Nations has announced the creation of a US-financed anti-graft program in El
Salvador, underscoring the United States' resolution to tackle corruption in Central America's
gang-plagued Northern Triangle region.
“On January 25, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) announced the
establishment of an anti-corruption program in El Salvador, reported Reuters. The program will
work with existing institutions by training Salvadoran officials to detect and investigate cases of
corruption, reported El Diario De Hoy.
“However, the program will lack the broad investigative powers enjoyed by the UN-backed antiimpunity commission in Guatemala, the International Commission against Impunity
in Guatemala (Comisión Internacional contra la Impunidad en Guatemala - CICIG).
“‘This is not the CICIG,’ said Monica Mendoza, a UNODC representative who will oversee the
program.
“The CICIG has been instrumental in investigating several high-level politicians
in Guatemala for graft, including former President Otto Pérez Molina and Vice President
Roxana Baldetti, both of whom are currently in prison awaiting trial.
“The US government will finance the three-year project, although the budget is not yet known.
“The United States is making a strong push to combat corruption in El Salvador, which along
with Honduras and Guatemala make up Central America's Northern Triangle region. In addition
to the new UN program, the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID) is sponsoring a separate anti-corruption body in El Salvador with a price tag of $25
million. The US government has also pressured El Salvador to accept a UN commission with a
mandate and investigative authority similar to the CICIG in Guatemala, albeit without success.
“This emphasis on combating corruption is linked in part to the Central American migrant crisis
that has overwhelmed the US immigration system in recent years. The US Congress
recently earmarked $750 million for aid programs that will attempt to address rampant gang
violence and poverty, which has ravaged the Northern Triangle and driven millions from their
homes.
“But US officials are fearful this money could go to waste unless corruption is addressed.
Indeed, 75 percent of the aid money is conditioned on Northern Triangle governments reducing
the level of corruption and impunity while improving rule of law standards.
“Still, this anti-corruption push may not amount to much without more support from the region's
governments. The UN and USAID programs in El Salvador are by design much weaker than the
CICIG, while similar concerns have been raised about the anti-impunity body that was recently
launched in Honduras. This means government officials will continue to be responsible for
investigating and prosecuting cases of graft, something for which neither El
Salvador nor Honduras has a strong track record.”
#. Hector Silva Avalos, In About-Face, El Salvador Govt Reopens ‘Chepe Diablo’
Case, 7 Dec. 2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/inabout-face-el-salvador-govt-reopens-chepe-diablo-case ........................
“When Luis Martínez was the Attorney General in 2015, he ordered his subordinates to shelve
the money laundering investigation against businessman José Adán Salazar Umaña. Now, with
Martínez out and facing accusations of corruption, the Attorney General’s Office has reactivated
the case against Salazar Umaña, alias ‘Chepe Diablo,’ and members of his so-called Texis
Cartel, and it has officially requested information from the United States and various countries
of Central America through diplomatic channels.
“Factum, InSight Crime and La Prensa Gráfica (LPG) have confirmed that in October, El
Salvador’s Attorney General’s Office asked El Salvador's Supreme Court (Corte Suprema de
Justicia - CSJ) to issue an official request to the United States and other Central American
countries to share information on at least twenty companies and financial activities related to
José Adán Salazar Umaña, alias ‘Chepe Diablo,’ Juan Umaña Samayoa, the mayor of Metapán,
Umaña Samayoa’s son, Wilfredo Guerra, and Jose Adán Salazar Martínez, Salazar Umaña’s
son, because of their allegedly illegal activities related to what is known as the Texis Cartel, a
drug transport and money laundering organization that operates from northwestern El Salvador.
“Three sources from the CSJ, including a magistrate, confirmed that the request, known as a
supplication in Salvadoran legalese, was made. It centers on what can only be an open
investigation against the above-mentioned persons for money laundering. When the Attorney
General’s Office submits a supplication, it has to pass through the Supreme Court, the Foreign
Ministry, embassies and other diplomatic and legal channels.
“On December 6, Attorney General Douglas Meléndez confirmed in an interview with La Prensa
Gráfica that he had issued the supplication. …
“Prior to this statement, the attorney general had given a short press conference in which he had
confirmed that the prosecutor's office had reactived the case against the Texis Cartel. However,
he did not give any details of the investigation and did not mention his predecessor, Luis
Martínez.
“‘That Texis case was basically shelved,’ Meléndez said during the press conference. ‘When I
arrived, I noted that, and we reopened it. That case is now under investigation. We might get
there, and we might have some success, but right now it's under investigation, just like other
cases.’
“The money laudering investigation is the first major investigation that the Salvadoran state has
done against Salazar Umaña and his group, which official investigations and news sources
connect to the Texis Cartel, since the government dropped a tax evasion case against members of
the group in 2015. Salazar Umaña and others paid some hefty fines following the tax case but all
other inquiries were apparently archived until Meléndez reopened them.
“In 2014, the US Treasury declared Salazar Umaña a ‘Kingpin,’ a designation that led some to
believe that a formal US indictment might follow. Instead, the pendulum swung in the other
direction. Then Salvadoran Attorney General Luis Martínez decided not to open a money
laundering investigation despite reports from the attorney general’s own prosecutors that
argued for a formal inquiry.
“It also ignored other leads from its own Finance Ministry, which showed that Chepe
Diablo may have been laundering money. In the end, Martínez and his staff simply closed
the money laundering inquiries.
“Factum, InSight Crime and La Prensa Gráfica attempted to consult the ex-Attorney General
Martínez and one of his subordinates on the matter, but they refused to give interviews.
“The three outlets also reached out to Salazar Umaña at his offices in Hotesa in Old Cuscatalán
and left a message but he did not respond; when they contacted his godson, Wilfredo Guerra, he
said that Salazar Umaña ‘did not like interviews.’
“The decision to issue a supplication is an incredible about-face for an Attorney General’s
Office that a little more than a year ago closed all the investigations into Salazar Umaña and his
close-knit group of business partners.
“It's also part of a larger story in which investigators seem to be putting more pressure on the
former Attorney General Martínez. Martínez, who already faces accusations of defrauding the
justice system, may have to confront additional accusations related to his handling of the Chepe
Diablo cases.
“Sources who worked on both the money laundering and tax evasion cases, told InSight Crime
that Martínez and several prosecutors actively obstructed the pursuit of justice, in spite of
evidence provided by Finance Ministry investigators that showed that Salazar Umaña had vast
amounts of wealth that he could not reasonably justify.
“Specifically, prosecutors under Martínez’s guise delayed requesting the materials related to the
investigation that might implicate Salazar Umaña for money laundering. In one instance, the
Financial Investigative Unit (Unidad de Investigación Financiera - UIF), which was handling
the case for Martínez, argued it had nowhere to put the physical case file; in another instance,
the UIF said the target, Salazar Umaña, was a public figure and ‘in the eye’ of the United States,
so each step of the process had to be measured and careful.
“When the head of the UIF could no longer come up with viable excuses, Martínez simply
swapped directors, and replaced him with someone he knew would do his bidding, sources told
InSight Crime. In the end, the UIF declared the money laundering case dead, asked the courts to
do the same, and had the files sent back to Chepe Diablo.”
#. AP, El Salvador to investigate death threats against justices, 6 Dec. 2016,
available at http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/12/06/el-salvador-to-investigatedeath-threats-against-justices.html ....
“SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – El Salvador's chief prosecutor says he is opening an
investigation into a complaint that governing party activists have made death threats against
Supreme Court justices.
“Chief Prosecutor Douglas Melendez says the probe is based on a complaint by Supreme Court
Justice Florentin Melendez, who is no relation to the prosecutor.
“The justice has complained that government supporters have staged demonstrations with
placards containing the threats. Melendez belongs to what is known as the court's Constitutional
Tribunal. He says protesters have carried banners reading ‘Death to the four justices of the
Constitutional Tribunal.’
“The Constitutional Tribunal declared unconstitutional the current administration's issuance of
$900 million in government bonds and unseated alternate congress members.
“Presidential spokesman Eugenio Chicas said Tuesday that the administration of President
Salvador Sanchez Ceren disavows the threats.”
#. David Gagne, Lack of state control credited with rise of El Salvador death
squad, 29 Nov. 2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/lack-ofstate-control-credited-with-rise-of-death-squad-in-el-salvador ...
“Numerous sources told Al Jazeera that the authorities' inability to reduce crime in El
Salvador has contributed to the rise of a shadowy group dedicated to killing suspected gang
members, but the government's attempts to take back control are only exacerbating the violence.
“‘The police and the military do what they can,’ a spokesman for the death squad known as ‘Los
Exterminio’ (The Extermination) tells filmmaker Lali Houghton and local journalist Bryan
Avelar. ‘But they will never be able to truly protect our communities. We have to defend
ourselves.’
“The interview was part of an investigation by Al Jazeera into the death squad operating in the
eastern province of San Miguel, which has been credited with at least 40 murders of gang
members.
“The sentiment expressed by the spokesman was shared by an active police officer who is under
investigation, along with 19 of his colleagues, for potential links to Los Exterminio.
“‘People who live in the countryside, they are defenseless,’ said the man identified as Inspector
Maradiaga. ‘Police might go there once or twice a month, but these criminals live there. So
that's why these people decide to take matters into their own hands.’
“The journalist Juan Carlos Diaz also pointed to the government's weak presence in certain
areas as the principal motivation for the anti-gang death squad.
“‘The very origin of the Los Exterminio group is the state's neglect of the communities,’ Diaz
told Al Jazeera. ‘The state has not been able to guarantee security, which is why those who are
able have organized themselves to fight the criminals.’
“Authorities in El Salvador are feeling increasing pressure to fill the security void cited in the Al
Jazeera investigation. El Salvador became the murder capital of the world last year, and
appears to be on pace to keep that dubious title in 2016.
“Security officials are attempting to regain control by implementing harsher anti-gang policies,
such as the ‘extraordinary measures’ that seek to cut off communication between incarcerated
gang leaders and their subordinates on the streets. In tandem with these policies are militarized
offensives against the groups. The most recent, ‘Plan Nemesis,’ was launched in response to an
alleged MS13 plan to wage a ‘stepped-up war against the system.’
“But unsurprisingly, this strategy has led to greater levels of police-gang confrontations and
violence. At least 44 police officers and 20 soldiers have died this year, a large number that
nonetheless pales in comparison to the over 500 suspected gang members killed. This lopsided
tally suggests a significant number of these so-called ‘confrontations’ were actually extrajudicial
killings by the security forces.
“Instead of deploying more police units, redirecting these resources towards improving El
Salvador's weak judicial system would likely pay greater security dividends in the long run. The
impunity rate for homicides stands at 94 percent, meaning there is little incentive for either
gangs, death squads or the police to stop the killing.
“‘The real cancer is impunity,’ Avelar told Al Jazeera. ‘Impunity has allowed the gang
phenomenon to grow and evolve and has now created these other violent armed groups.’”
#. Aljazeera News, El Salvador: Assassins for Sale, 24 Nov 2016, available at
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/latin-america-investigates/2016/11/elsalvador-assassins-sale-161123123642933.html ...
“With a murder every one and a half hours, El Salvador is counted among the world's most
dangerous nations. Awash with weapons and torn apart by the internecine struggles of rival
criminal gangs, the country is experiencing violence at levels unseen since the aftermath of its
long and brutal civil war.
“While the state struggles to find an effective law enforcement and judicial solution to the
problem - the Salvadoran authorities have tried the iron fist of military force, prosecuting gangs
into oblivion and even, briefly and unsuccessfully, negotiation - things have become so bad that
others have started taking matters into their own hands by forming vigilante groups and tracking
down and murdering gang members who are threatening their community
“In this first episode of Latin America Investigates, an uncompromising and compelling new
series in which we team up with some of the continent's best investigative journalists, reporter
Bryan Avelar and filmmaker Lali Houghton travel to the western province of San Miguel to find
out more.
“There the notorious MS-13 gang rules the roost through fear and terror. With an estimated
60,000 ‘soldiers’ nationwide - many of them bearing distinctive tattoos to mark their allegiance and more than half a million affiliates, from lookouts to family members, MS-13 claims to both
protect its own and look after the interests of the economically marginalised.
“However the reality for the public is a seemingly never-ending cycle of violence, intimidation,
extortion, kidnap and murder. Most people are too terrified to stand against them or even speak
out, let alone help the police.
“But now a vigilante death squad, called Los Exterminio, is fighting back. Accredited with at
least 40 murders of gang members, it first came to prominence last summer when seven bodies
were found on a country road. The dead men had all been executed with a bullet to the head and
all were thought to have belonged to MS-13.
“So what's driven the shadowy figures who operate under Los Exterminio's banner to take such
drastic action? And what truth is there to rumours that they are funded by local businessmen and
benefit from a collaborative - if secret - relationship with the police?
FILMMAKER'S VIEW
by Lali Houghton
“I had never been to El Salvador before and the thought of venturing into unknown waters both
fascinated me and drew shivers. When I first spoke to local journalist Bryan Avelar, it
immediately became clear that the story was not going to be easy. We were setting out to
investigate death squads killing off local gang members, specifically the Mara Salvatrucha or
MS-13, in the western province of San Miguel.
“We had all heard of how dangerous El Salvador was - the highest homicide rates outside of
war; a mafia born out of poverty; a country crippled by murder and fear. I had also heard of the
French filmmaker Christian Poveda who got too close to MS-13 and paid the ultimate price.
“Life in El Salvador is cheap and murder is sewn into the fabric of society. There was almost
one every hour in the first three months of 2016, according to the official Instituto de Medicina
Legal.
“At my side was my guide and go-between, Bryan Avelar, aged only 23. I wondered what all
these dark murder stories must be doing to his psyche. He was just as fascinated as I was but
with a level of wisdom far beyond his years; he was able to see beyond the sensationalist
rhetoric of the media and banal statistics fed by the government.
“A relentless investigator, he was risking his life to try to shine a light on the complex mess his
country finds itself in.
“According to online digital newspaper El Faro, 70 percent of businesses in El Salvador have to
pay extortion money to MS-13 or the Barrio 18 Gang.
“Their tentacles stretch across all aspects of society. And yet with access to the gangs so difficult
to achieve, few are able to articulate quite how they have expanded and taken control of the
country. The closest I've seen was a book written by anthropologist Jose Martinez D'Aubusson,
who spent a year living in a shanty town controlled by MS-13.
“Ultimately, it is social and historical factors that trap large swaths of the population in poverty
creating a breeding ground of new recruits for the gangs.
“And then appear Los Exterminators. A legion of town vigilantes killing off gang members in
order to stem the violence that is affecting the local economy. Allegedly assisted by police and
financed by local businessmen, they want respite from life under the shadow of MS-13.
“Desperate and defiant people who have lost all faith in the authorities, they are filling the
lawless vacuum created by a lack of police response. They have taken matters into their own
hands and fight fire with fire, ultimately causing yet more death.
“The closer we got to them, the more perilous the situation felt. Bryan was told in a veiled threat
not to pursue the story further. We managed to get the interview with the Los Exterminio group
from a separate source.
“My own role was fleeting, a tourist's eye fascinated and trying to make sense of the mayhem. It
is Bryan, in the end, who has to live with the ghosts and the constant fear that tomorrow may be
his last story.”
#. Deborah Bonello, Institutions complicit in alleged embezzlement by former El
Salvador president, 4 Nov. 2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/newsanalysis/institutions-complicit-in-alleged-embezzlement-by-fmr-el-salvador-president
....
“New details have emerged about the embezzlement and money laundering case against
former El Salvador President Elías Antonio Saca, suggesting public and private institutional
complicity in the pilfering of public funds.
“Saca and several other members of his 2004 to 2009 administration were arrested at the end of
October as part of an investigation of the alleged embezzlement of more than $240 million of
public funds, according to Factum, which has seen a copy of the case documents against the
former president and his associates.
“Saca created a new law soon after entering the presidency in 2004 that allowed him and his
associates to transfer public funds into private accounts without leaving much of a paper trail,
writes Factum.
“The new regulation was called ‘Internal Operational Regulation for the Management, Control
and Inspection of Public Funds, Reserved and Secret Spending of the Presideny of the Republic,
Destined for Intelligence, the Classification, Management and Proctection of Intelligence and
the Duty to Keep Secret the Designated Collaborators for those that Manage Secret and
Reserved Spending’….
“The rule ‘shows that from the start of the position [the presidency of Saca] they planned the
way they were going to manage the embezzlement of state funds and how they were going to
create impunity,’ the Attorney General's Office stated in documents seen by Factum.
“Following the creation of the new regulation, Saca -- with help from Élmer Roberto Charlaix,
his private secretary at the time; Julio Humberto Rank, his then communications secretary; and
César Daniel Funes, then president of the country's National Aqueducts and Sewers
Administration (Administración Nacional de Acueductos y Alcantarillados - ANDA) -- allegedly
proceeded to move millions of dollars of public money from the presidential accounts into their
personal ones and those of other collaborators, as well as into the bank accounts of companies
owned by Saca.
“Some companies were apparently given money by the government even though no contracts
existed between the two. Details of some of those accounts and the quantities of money that went
into them are laid out in the graphic below, compiled by Factum.
“Notably, private banks, state institutions tasked with detecting suspicious financial
transactions, and government employees all appear to have remained silent about the suspicious
financial activity alleged to have been taking taking place around that time.
“One commercial bank went a step further and allegedly lied when it was asked to provide
information on the deposits and withdrawals of a bank account connected to Francisco
Rodríguez, an employee of the presidency. In a report to the Attorney General's Office, the
Banco Hipotecario assured that there had been no movement of funds in or out of the account
since its creation, according to Factum. However, it later emerged that some $52 million dollars
had been deposited in the account during the period of investigation.
“The government's Court of Accounts (Corte de Cuentas), in charge of tracking public spending
by state institutions, also remained silent about the financial activities of Saca and his associates
in what the magazine refers to as the ‘biggest embezzlement case in the country's recent history.’
“The new revelations about the complicity of both public and private institutions in the pilfering
of so much public money are deeply worrying. The allegations of institutional collusion -- or at
best blindness to wrongdoing -- speak to a trend seen across the region in countries
like Venezuela, Guatemala and Brazil: the development of mafia-like structures within
governments that create mechanisms, networks and relationships to facilitate the theft of public
money, and generate silence, corruption and impunity by spreading responsibility across more
than a few individuals. The more people and institutions that are involved in embezzlement
schemes such as the one alleged in El Salvador, the more interests it serves to remain silent.
“This trend also takes a heavy toll on governance, democracy and the ability to curb
violence, with co-opted institutions failing in their responsibility to blow the whistle on
corruption and wrongdoing, and abandoning their duty to bring abusers of public positions,
trust and money to justice.
“The striking new details of the alleged siphoning of public funds by Saca and his apparent
cohorts, if true, also show a blatant disregard on the part of El Salvador's political elites for the
country's development and future. El Salvador -- one of the most violent countries in the
world and deeply corrupt -- is currently in the grip of a financial crisis and may have to default
on its public debt.
“That the alleged corruption has been uncovered and is being investigated is testament to a
growing accountability in El Salvador, which is perhaps learning from the example set by its
regional neighbors Guatemala and Brazil.”
#. David Gagne, El Salvador to Investigate Meeting between Officials, Gangs:
Report,1 Nov. 2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/elsalvador-ag-to-investigate-meeting-between-officials-gangs ...
“El Salvador's Attorney General indicated that his office may investigate the recently revealed
meetings between two high-level government officials and gang leaders, raising the question of
how prosecutors will proceed in a case fraught with political implications.
“Attorney General Douglas Meléndez made the statement on October 31, during a press
conference to provide information on the arrest of former President Elías Antonio Saca, reported
La Prensa Gráfica.
“The potential investigation concerns two videos showing current Interior Minister Arístides
Valencia and former Security Minister Benito Lara holding secret negotiations with the leaders
of El Salvador's three largest gangs, the MS13 and two factions of the Barrio 18. The videos
were simultaneously published on October 29 by El Faro, Revista Factum and InSight Crime.
“In one video, Valencia offers gang leaders $10 million in micro-credit for projects that would
be run by the gangs. The exact dates of when the meetings were held remain unclear. ….
“La Prensa Gráfica interpreted [AG comments] as confirmation that the Attorney General's
Office will launch a probe. However, a spokesperson for El Salvador's Attorney General Office
told InSight Crime that he could neither confirm nor deny that the institution will investigate the
matter. He said that it is possible that the media misinterpreted the attorney general's response,
and that Meléndez may have only suggested that he will analyze the situation in the coming
days.
“Lara served as security minister from June 2014 until January 2016, and is currently an
adviser to President Salvador Sánchez Cerén on security matters. Valencia, who was a
congressman prior to serving as interior minister, also appeared in a video published by El Faro
in May in which he discusses an electoral pact with the three gangs. El Faro verified that the
meeting took place in February 2014, between the first and second rounds of presidential
elections that year.
“When questioned by El Faro and Factum reporters about the recent videos, both Valencia and
Lara declined to comment.
“While Meléndez suggested that a probe could be opened into Lara's and Valencia's interactions
with the gangs, he didn't provide details on any specific lines of investigation. Nonetheless,
previous charges leveled against the mediators and officials associated with El Salvador's
2012 gang truce could provide clues as to where a potential probe would be headed.
“In May, Salvadoran authorities arrested 18 individuals, including prominent truce
mediator Raúl Mijango, on charges that included illicit association, trafficking of prohibited
items into prisons and falsification of documents. Meléndez said at the time that he was not
seeking to criminalize the truce, but rather the illicit acts allegedly committed during the course
of the negotiations.
“The Attorney General's Office may pursue a similar strategy now. As InSight Crime pointed
out when the videos of Lara and Valencia were first published, Valencia's offer to provide the
gangs with millions of dollars in micro-credit appears to be in violation of a 2010 law -- which is
still in effect -- that defined the gangs as criminal actors and established penalties for those who
collaborated with them.
“At the same time, no investigation was opened into Valencia following the May release of the
video in which he was shown to be working with the gangs to mobilize votes ahead of the second
round of presidential elections. It's not yet clear why prosecutors would decide to investigate the
interior minister just months after they declined to do so under similar circumstances.
“It's worth noting that the 2012 truce was carried out under the administration of former
President Mauricio Funes, while Valencia and Lara have served under current
President Sánchez Cerén. Both presidents belong to the leftist party Farabundo Martí National
Liberation Front (Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberacion Nacional -- FMLN).”
#. Joshua Partlow, El Salvador’s security forces are now more involved in
shootouts than Mexico’s, 31 Oct. 2016, available at
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/10/31/el-salvadorssecurity-forces-are-now-involved-in-more-shootouts-thanmexicos/?utm_term=.c0c49acc5a49 ….
“MEXICO CITY — Nearly every day in El Salvador, police have what they call
‘enfrentamientos’ — or confrontations — with the powerful street gangs that blanket the country.
Another word for this is ‘shootout.’
“So the announcement last week by the director of the National Civil Police, Howard Cotto, that
police have done this 459 times so far this year points to the severity of the conflict between the
gangs and the state. In those confrontations, 424 alleged gang members were killed,
Cotto said at a news conference.
“The website Insight Crime, which tracks security issues in Latin America, pointed out that this
means El Salvador's authorities are clashing with criminal groups more often than in Mexico,
which is still engulfed in a drug war, and Colombia, whose half-century-long civil war is ending
— despite those countries having far larger populations.
“One notable thing about the ‘enfrentamientos’ statistic is that many people in El Salvador view
this term with deep suspicion. From human rights officials to average citizens, many people
doubt whether an exchange of fire took place — and wonder whether police officers simply killed
their enemy.
“Last year, on the San Blas farm south of the capital, eight ‘gang members’ died in a what
police described as a shootout. Investigative reporting by the news site El Faro cast doubt on
those statements, and the attorney general's office subsequently brought charges against several
police officers for extrajudicial execution.
“The government of President Salvador Sánchez Céren has pursued a fierce crackdown on
gangs over the past two years, imposing emergency measures and calling up soldiers and police
into the fight. Although those measures are often popular in gang-weary El Salvador — gangs
are responsible for killings, kidnapping and vast amounts of extortion. Human rights workers
have repeatedly raised warnings about abuses by authorities as they carry out their operations
and target gang members.
“The homicide rate has fallen from its height in 2015. Still, there have been more than 4,400
murders so far this year, down by about 1,000 from last year's total at this time.”
#. Sarah Esther Maslin, Fred Ramos and Gabriela Martinez, El Salvador’s conflict
with gangs is beginning to look like a war, 28 Oct. 2016, available at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/world/2016/10/28/el-salvadors-conflict-withgangs-is-beginning-to-look-like-a-war/ ………….
“CANTON SANTA TERESA, El Salvador — The Tiny Malditos used to own this village, strutting
around with their rifles and 9mm pistols, their gang allegiances tattooed in crude gothic script
across their slender teenage backs and chests.
“These days, Santa Teresa doesn’t have much of a gang problem. One by one over the past year,
the ‘sons of the community,’ as the town’s Catholic priest calls them — or ‘terrorists,’ as the
government prefers — have been killed, arrested or driven out.
“There was the young man shot by police behind the abandoned adobe house; three more
gunned down by officers in the church courtyard; the girlfriend of a jailed gangster, found
topless in a roadside ditch with two bullet holes in the back of her head.
“The dismantling of the Tiny Malditos is part of a fierce government crackdown on gangs, whose
battles had turned El Salvador into one of the world’s deadliest nations. The government boasts
that its strategy is working, with a homicide rate running below last year’s. Nevertheless, there
have been more than 4,000 killings this year in a country with approximately the population of
Maryland — which had fewer than 400 homicides in 2014, the latest data available.
“El Salvador’s hostilities appear to be taking on a dangerous new dimension. Once
predominantly a street fight between rival gangs, the conflict has shifted to a war between the
gangs and the state. Soldiers and police are being linked to human rights abuses and
assassinations, an echo of the civil war between leftist guerrillas and the U.S.-backed
government fought a quarter-century ago.
“The conflict is prompting massive population flight. Since the start of 2014, nearly a quartermillion Salvadorans have been caught in transit by U.S. and Mexican immigration officials. This
year, an average of 8,354 Salvadorans a month have been apprehended on their journey north,
based on Mexican immigration and Border Patrol stats, more than at the height of the refugee
crisis two years ago, when women and children swarmed the U.S. border.
“In tiny Santa Teresa, the police have killed at least 10 gang members in the recent crackdown,
while losing none of their own. Some residents applaud what they acknowledge are heavyhanded police tactics, saying that the authorities have restored calm. But the village burns with
resentment, as the gangsters’ families and friends see the police as their most dangerous enemy.
“As one police officer in the area put it, ‘What we have now is a civil war.’
“The Tiny Malditos…were a clique of about 20 teens and young men. Many were born and
raised in Santa Teresa, a farming settlement shrouded in lush vegetation at the base of a
volcano, in the central province of La Paz.
“Experts estimate that 70,000 people in this country of 6 million belong to gangs, with a halfmillion more involved in economic activities related to the gangs. In the vast outlaw geography
of El Salvador, the Tiny Malditos played a bit part, working for a much larger national gang
known as the 18th Street Revolutionaries.
“By the start of last year, the Tiny Malditos had taken over this town. They brandished guns,
manned checkpoints on back roads and demanded payments from residents. Police rarely
intervened.
“‘It was terrible,’ one resident recalled, speaking the on condition of anonymity because of a
fear of reprisal. ‘You started to hear gunfire inside the community. You couldn’t visit your
neighbors. If you tried to go out in the evening and you weren’t registered with the gangs, they
wouldn’t let you pass.’
“One afternoon in the spring of 2015, an off-duty police sergeant was sitting on a concrete
bench outside Santa Teresa Catholic Church, waiting for his car to be repaired, when two
members of the Tiny Malditos walked up. Words were exchanged and one of the gangsters fired
a gun. The sergeant took a bullet in the leg.
“‘The slaughter began after they shot that policeman,’ said Jorge Bernal, 33, who lives a few
houses down from the church.
“In the next few weeks, four young men 16 to 24 years old were fatally shot by police during two
incidents. Police on both occasions reported an ‘enfrentamiento,’ or confrontation, in which
gangsters fired on them. Relatives of the dead said that the officers killed the young men
unprovoked.
“As with much of the violence here, getting to the truth is difficult. Investigations are often
cursory. Some residents said they are too afraid of the police to provide testimony. What is clear
is many residents’ deep resentment of the security forces.
“‘We see the police as terrorists,’ said an aunt of one of the four victims, 16-year-old Bryan
Rodrigo Santos Arevalo.
“The aunt, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing a fear of authorities, said that a
witness who escaped told her that police had executed the teenager. The right side of Santos
Arevalo’s face was blown off, morgue photos show.
“If police were using lethal force, so were the gangs. On July 3, 2015, four local police officers
were returning from a call when ‘they attacked us from both sides,’ recalled a police supervisor
who was present, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Gang members positioned on earthen
mounds overlooking the road sprayed gunfire at the officers’ truck, he said. The police sped off,
firing frantically, but the driver was hit in his left side. The supervisor was shot in the right
knee….
“Three days later, local police along with members of a San Salvador-based SWAT team shot
and killed two members of the Tiny Malditos outside a farmhouse in Santa Teresa. The police
reported taking gunfire on arrival. Morena Leiva de Silva, the mother of one of the dead, said a
farmworker who was present told her that the officers shot the two gang members as they fled….
“President Salvador Sánchez Cerén was a Marxist guerrilla in the 1980s. Now he is the one
defending the state.
“‘Although some say we are at war, there is no other road,’ Sánchez Cerén said in March.
“The government of Sánchez Cerén’s predecessor, Mauricio Funes, had engineered a truce
between major gangs, transferring their leaders into more lax prisons where they could
coordinate with their followers. The homicide rate fell, although critics argued that the respite
allowed the gangs to grow stronger.
“On taking office in June 2014, Sánchez Cerén brought a swift end to the truce. His government
transferred the leaders back to maximum-security lockups, banned visits and cut off cellphone
access. He called up military reservists to join the fight against the gangs. The director of the
national police announced that officers should feel free to use their weapons to protect
themselves. New legislation made it harder to investigate police when they alleged self-defense.
“Homicides shot up. Last year, police were responsible for an estimated 1,000 of the country’s
6,600 killings, a steep increase, experts say.
“The gangs began targeting police, soldiers, prosecutors and their families in a way unseen.
Gang members killed more than 60 police officers last year, nearly doubling the total the year
before. Police have confiscated an increasing number of military-style assault rifles from gang
members. The attorney general’s office recently accused one of the biggest gangs, Mara
Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, of planning to assemble a 500-man unit of trained gang
members to attack security forces. Last fall, a car rigged with explosives detonated outside the
Finance Ministry.
“The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights warned in June that allegations of
assassinations by El Salvador’s security forces are ‘intolerable and are likely to fuel even
greater violence.’
“The national human rights prosecutor’s office, an independent agency, has compiled a registry
of nearly 100 cases of alleged assassinations by security forces or shadowy ‘extermination
groups,’ which often include off-duty police, since mid-2013. But the agency acknowledges that
there may be many more.
“Walter Gerardo Alegria, a deputy head of the office, said it wasn’t clear whether such killings
were ordered by authorities. ‘However, from the quantity of cases that we have, one can assume
that this is a systematic practice,’ he said.
“The director of the national police, Howard Cotto, said he couldn’t rule out that some officers
may have taken part in summary executions, but he denied that such behavior was permitted….
“The campaign against gangs has been popular among many Salvadorans. But it may come at a
terrible cost to this young democracy, said Hector Silva Avalos, who has written a book on the
Salvadoran police.
“‘If between death squads, citizen squads, rough police officers, they kill enough gang members
to actually diminish the territorial control of the gangs — then who’s going to be in charge?’ he
asked. ‘Police commanders with no respect for human rights?’
“By early this year, the Tiny Malditos were on the run. They moved through the jungle near
Santa Teresa, sleeping in hammocks or in a cave tucked beneath banana trees.
“Emerson Jhonatan Rivas, 27, was hiding at his girlfriend’s hair salon in Santa Teresa when
police found him. The girlfriend, Fatima Lopez, and her mother, Veronica, said they watched as
police arrived, captured Rivas and marched him, barefoot, out of their place of business. He was
found dead 160 yards down the road, behind an abandoned adobe house, lying face down next to
a sugar cane field.
“The police explanation had a familiar ring: a shootout with terrorists.
“‘It was not like they said, a confrontation,’ recalled one of the neighbors, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal from the police. ‘They took him from the house.’
“Police ordered Santa Teresa’s inhabitants to not give food to the outlaws, residents said. Jose
Miguel Angel Martinez Diaz, a 29-year-old farmworker, said he was beaten on two occasions by
police as they demanded information about the gangs.
“‘I had bruises all over my arms and body,’ he said. The local police supervisor denied the
charge.
“Along Santa Teresa’s main road is the Catholic church, with a grassy, enclosed yard. The Rev.
Santos Martinez said he disapproved of the gangsters’ crimes and intimidation, but he also
recognized the young men as part of the local fabric. Their relatives sat in his pews; he had
attended their family weddings, baptized their younger siblings.
“‘People here don’t accept the authorities,’ he said in an interview. ‘I believe that it is the
authorities’ duty, their obligation, to be present, providing security, but they do these [violent]
things and only they know why.’
“One of the most chilling deaths involved the girlfriend of a gangster jailed for extortion. Nuri
Isela Castillo, 31, worked at a snack shop at the village school.
“About 1 a.m. on April 28, someone banged on the door of Castillo’s one-story yellow house,
down a dirt road in a grove of mango trees. The police had searched the house eight days
earlier, according to her family and a neighbor. Nuri’s sister, Flor de Maria Castillo, 25, opened
the door.
“Masked policemen entered the tile-floored dining room, put white plastic flex-cuffs on Nuri’s
wrists and loaded her into a truck, Flor de Maria and her mother recalled. Nuri’s topless body
was found in a ditch five hours later.
“Police deny that they arrested Nuri Castillo that night and blame the killing on a gang feuding
with her boyfriend’s group. But in addition to Nuri’s family, a local resident has told the human
rights prosecutor’s office that police were involved.
“When Flor de Maria went to identify the corpse, a policeman told her that if she made a formal
complaint, ‘I would end up like my sister,’ she recalled.
“One of the last surviving Tiny Malditos, Rudy Melendez, lived as if his days were numbered. A
stem-thin 15-year-old with wary, darting eyes, Melendez met with a reporter in a house in Santa
Teresa recently, the butt of a pistol visible in the pocket of his pants, his 7-year-old brother
standing outside as a lookout. At one point, when a police patrol passed, Melendez sprinted into
a bamboo thicket to hide.
“‘They’re coming to kill,’ he said after he crept back inside. ‘They have a great hatred.’
“He described how three of his fellow gang members had been slain by the police. It happened
one night in February, after Melendez and the three other young men had scaled the wall of the
Catholic church and bedded down outside the chapel while the priest was sleeping in his
chambers. Before dawn, police burst into the courtyard. Melendez claimed that the officers shot
the three young men and then planted weapons alongside them as he hid under a pile of leaves
and trash, watching.
“Government investigators have not been able to confirm such police malfeasance. Investigators
found gunshot residue on the gang members’ hands, indicating they may have fired the guns —
but it wasn’t clear whether they had shot first. The police, who suffered no injuries, said they had
engaged in a shootout with the gang members. The priest said he didn’t see anything.
“Regardless, the deaths carved a new wound in the community. Hundreds of people turned out
for the funeral, marching down the main street behind the coffins.
“‘Whoever they catch here, they kill,’ Melendez said in the interview. ‘The ones in this village
get killed.’
“But he would face another fate. Melendez fled to a town along the Guatemalan border. This
month he was arrested by Salvadoran police and is being held in a juvenile jail about 50 miles
north of his home.
“At a candlelit Sunday morning Mass recently, Martinez told the congregation that the country
was penned in by a ‘culture of death.’…
“Hanging on the chapel wall were framed photos of four American nuns murdered by security
forces in 1980 during the civil war. At that time, most Santa Teresa residents supported the
army. Government death squads regularly dumped bodies, including the nuns’, in the area.
“Many worry that a war mentality has again taken hold.
“After the service, Martinez chatted in the courtyard with Eriberto Reyes, a former youth leader
for the church.
“Reyes, for one, did not mourn the dead gangsters.
“‘If the law were just, then yes, it would have been better to detain them,’ he said. But he added
that gang members could easily bribe judges to free them from prison.
“‘It’s a better option to exterminate them.’”
#. Roberto Valencia, Official Data Suggest El Salvador Police Kill with Impunity,
7 Oct 2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/official-datasuggests-el-salvador-police-kill-impunity ................
“El Salvador's armed forces and the National Civil Police (PNC) are killing alleged gang
members at a rate of about 35 per month since the government declared war on the country's
gangs in January 2015. Security officials justify the killings as confrontations that ‘conform to
the law.’ But a detailed analysis of the numbers and a comparison with those from other
countries with a history of police abuse, such as Mexico and the United States, ‘point to the
existence of summary executions,’ according to one expert.
“In the last 20 months, the PNC and the military have killed 693 alleged gang members, an
almost surreal number for a country with about 6.5 million inhabitants. In combination with
other statistics, like the very low amount of police casualties and injuries, this figure supports the
notion that Salvadoran security forces are making disproportionate use of their weapons and are
committing extrajudicial executions.
“Police abuse has been researched in different societies, and the international community has
agreed on the warning signs. El Salvador is surpassing them all. Some examples: for every
alleged gang member injured during confrontations that occurred between January and August
2016, three were killed. Similarly, the ratio of killings of police officers during exchanges of
gunfire is one for every 53 such incidents.
[Note: This article was translated, edited for clarity and length and published with the
permission of El Faro. It does not necessarily represent the views of InSight Crime. See
the Spanish original here.]
“‘The incidence of civilian deaths at the hands of state agents is very high in El Salvador, even
in comparison with countries that have similar problems, like Brazil,’ said sociologist Ignacio
Cano, the coordinator of the Center for Violence Analysis at the State University of Rio de
Janeiro and a recognized expert in this field for his work on police violence in Brazil's favelas.
‘The numbers from El Salvador indicate an abusive use of lethal force by the police and the
presence of summary executions.’
“Through the Access to Public Information Law (Ley de Acceso a la Información Publica), El
Faro requested a list of all events that the police declared as ‘confrontations’ from January
2015, when the government declared a war against the gangs, to August 31, 2016. In addition to
the time and location of the incidents, El Faro also requested details of the deaths and injuries
on each side as well as information on the gender and age of the victims.
“Compared to similar studies from Brazil, Mexico, and the United States, the PNC fairs poorly,
exhibiting patterns of conduct similar to those of the police forces that operated during the
country's 1980 to 1992 civil war. Such behaviour is diametrically opposed to what is expected
from a police force in a democratic state. ‘And the abuse of force by state agents worsened in
2016,’ said Cano, who analyzed the numbers and information El Faro received from the police.
“El Faro spoke to a police officer responsible for one of the police's sub-delegations, who asked
to remain anonymous. ‘I never received an order to kill or cover up’ a killing, he said. But, he
added, ‘it is obvious that hatred for gang members within the police and the desire for revenge
has increased, and I do hear conversations between agents who say: these sons of bitches, they
should all be killed.’
“This official believes that special units such as the Police Reaction Group (Grupo de Reacción
Policial - GRP) and the recently created Forces for Intervention and Territorial Recovery
(Fuerzas de Intervención y Recuperación Territorial - FIRT) are particularly prone to
committing summary executions.
“The official numbers, reports and testimonies confirm fears about the actions of the PNC and
the armed forces expressed by a variety of organizations including the US State Department, the
Ombudsman for the Defense of Human Rights (Procuraduría para la Defensa de los Derechos
Humanos), and various non-governmental organizations. The government, however, strongly
supports the work of the security forces and denies that they are committing human rights
violations.
“‘Those confrontations occur when dilinquents respond with gunfire to the officers' attempts to
arrest them...and so they die,’ said PNC Director Howard Cotto in a September 16 television
interview.
“On August 26, the Chicago Tribune published a similar report on the Chicago Police
Department (CPD) also based on information obtained through access to information laws. In
the six years from January 2010 to December 2015, the CPD registered 435 armed
confrontations with suspected criminals, which resulted in 92 killed and 170 injured, yielding a
lethality index of 0.54.
“In El Salvador, in just 20 months from January 2015 to August 2016, the police registered
1,074 armed confrontations with alleged gang members, which resulted in 693 deaths and 255
injuries, yielding a lethality index of 2.72.
“The lethality index is an internationally accepted indicator used to evaluate the performance of
security forces. It shows the relationship between the number of civilians killed versus the
number injured in confrontations with military and police.
“‘In any kind of legitimate armed confrontation, police or military, one expects to find more
injuries than killings, hence the coefficient always should be smaller than one,’ said Cano.
“Cano's statement is echoed by a report (pdf) on the lethality of security forces in Mexico's drug
war published by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México - UNAM): ‘One would expect that in confrontations between civilians and
security forces, the number of dead would not significantly surpass the number of injured, and
that the index number would not be much higher than one.’…
“In El Salvador, the lethality index of the security forces reached 2.3 in 2015, while in the first
eight months of 2016 it jumped to 3.1. The actual numbers could be even higher, since they have
been calculated using a category that the PNC labeled as ‘injured gang members,’ which does
not specify if the injury occurred during a shootout or afterwards during transport or
interrogation….
“‘The police now go around in a state of psychosis, and at times it is natural that they say:
'better to shoot first,'’ said the officer who agreed to speak anonymously to El Faro.
“The Organic Law of the National Civil Police of El Salvador is very precise when comes to
defining how officers should act in dangerous situations in which they feel obligated to use their
weapons. Article 15 establishes that ‘members of the National Civil Police will use, to the
greatest extent possible, non-violent means before resorting to the use of force and firearms.’
The police are also required by law to ‘minimize harm and injury, and to respect and protect
human life,’ as well as ‘to proceed so as to provide the medical care and services to people
injured or affected soon as possible’ following an exchange of gunfire.
“In 20 months, the PNC recorded 1,074 incidents as ‘confrontations between police or soldiers
and gang members,’ an average of 54 incidents per month. For comparison, the Chicago Police
Department recorded an average of six shootouts per month between the police and alleged
criminals.
“Comparing 2015 and 2016, it appears that the PNC is becoming increasingly lethal over time.
In eight months in 2016, 373 alleged gang members were killed compared to 320 in all of 2015.
In 2013 and 2014, there were 39 and 49 killings respectively. Thus, the ‘war’ seems to have
multiplied the number of suspected gang members killed by a factor of ten.
“As for security force casualties, 13 police officers and 4 soldiers died in confrontations in 2015,
and 4 police and 3 soldiers had died in such incidents as of August 31, 2016. (See InSight
Crime's graphic below. Data for 2016 represent a projection based on current trends.)
“The gender of the victims is another significant data point: 99 percent of the suspected gang
members were male. Another relevant statistic is the victims' age. Although the PNC claims not
to have been able to establish the age of 330 of the 693 slain suspects, among those that were
identified are 63 minors, from which it is possible to infer that roughly 100 of the victims may
have been younger than 18 years old – ‘children’ according to international treaties signed
by El Salvador.
“As for the geographical distribution of the confrontations, the most affected departments are La
Paz, Cuscatlán and Usulután. At the opposite extreme, Ahuachapán, Chalatenango and Morazan
-- in that order -- are the territories where the least armed confrontations have taken place. At
the municipal level, it is noteworthy that rural towns and villages appear to be the scene of more
confrontations.
“But of all the data, the most worrying for Cano is the relationship between the casualties of
police and soldiers and the casualties of gang members. In 2015, this ratio was was one to 19.
“Not even in Mexico during the worst periods of the war on drugs were such numbers observed.
The ratio of deaths of Mexican Federal Police officers to suspected criminals was one to 10 in
2012. And the military, a key player in that conflict, had a ratio of one soldier dead for every 20
suspected criminals between 2011 and 2013. (In August, Mexican President Enrique Peña
Nieto fired Federal Police chief Enrique Galindo following revelations that the force had been
involved in extrajudicial executions.)
“In 2016, the Salvadoran PNC has had a ratio of one officer killed for every 53 presumed gang
members slain.
“‘According to Paul Chevigny (1991), the death of more than ten or fifteen civilians for one
security officer casualty suggests that lethal force is being used beyond what is necessary,’ reads
the UNAM report cited above.
“Cano cites the same source to conclude that there appears to be ‘abuse of lethal force on the
part of law enforcement officials in El Salvador.’
“Paradoxically, the PNC legitimizes the killings of alleged gang members with the claim that
they are heavily armed when they are killed by the police. ‘Just in the operations in which there
have been confrontations, 443 weapons were seized this year from gang members, including 18
AK-47 rifles and 16 M16 rifles,’ Cotto said.
“The use of ‘presumed gang members’ in this report when referring to deaths caused by the
police and military is not just a formality. In July 2015 and February 2016, El Faro revealed
how agents of the police murdered two young men whom the institution later presented as "gang
members" even though they were not part of any gang structure.
“Dennis Alexander Martínez, for example, died as a result of being shot in the head by GRP
officers while he knelt down begging for his life at the San Blas farm on March 26, 2015.
However, in official police statistics, Dennis appears as a gang member.
“A similar situation played out with Armando Díaz, who was also executed by the GRP on
February 8, 2016, when three underage gang members fleeing from a police operation slipped
through the roof of his home in the neighborhood of Villas de Zaragoza in the municipality of
Zaragoza. Armando is listed in official reports as one of 693 ‘gang members’ killed by the police
in self defense.
“Even though these cases are publicly known -- in addition to others revealed by other news
outlets and in official reports by the human rights ombudsman -- events referred to by the PNC
as ‘confrontations’ rarely spark the interest of the Attorney General's Office, with the exception
of the few incidents that involve casualties of police or soldiers.
“The Attorney General's Office rejects accusations that the institution is lenient when it comes to
police abuses. Salvador Martínez, the institution's communications director, assured that the
death of a gang member is processed in the same way as ‘that of a doctor or a farmer.’
When asked for detailed information on the number of police officers and soldiers who have
been prosecuted for participation in ‘confrontations, Martínez answered: ‘It is not that we don't
want to give the information, but we would have to analyze the six hundred-odd cases, one by
one, to know who is being prosecuted.’
“Despite Martinez's statement, an internal document of the Attorney General's Office obtained
by El Faro, provides evidence that only one of the 693 deaths of presumed gang members caused
by security forces over the course of 20 months has advanced past an initial court hearing: the
case of Dennis Martínez, one of the eight killed in the emblematic massacre at San Blas.
“In the remaining deaths -- 99.86 percent -- the Attorney General's Office has accepted the
police versions as valid.
“The PNC is the state institution that accumulates the most complaints at the human rights
ombudsman's office. According to a poll published by the investigative unit of La Prensa Gráfica
at the end of August, the percentage of people who said they had suffered police abuse jumped
from 11 percent in 2015 to 16 percent in 2016.
“Nonetheless, in El Salvador there seems to be a political and social majority that tolerates and
even applauds the methods used by security forces in the ‘war’ against the gangs. The same poll
revealed that the number of Salvadorans with a good or very good opinion of the PNC rose from
52 to 54 percent.
“‘Some police officers have been driven by what the population is asking for,’ said the PNC
official who agreed to speak under condition of anonymity. ‘On social media, out of every 60
comments, 59 call for the death of all gang members.’
“On September 10, the PNC's official Twitter account shared an image of two officers -- a man
wearing protective gear like that used by the Unit for Public Order (Unidad del Mantenimiento
del Orden - UMO) and a woman wearing the official white uniform -- with the slogan ‘New
times, heroes of El Salvador.’ The photomontage was accompanied by a message that read,
‘When the homeland is in danger, everything is allowed, except not defending it.’
“The next day, after some critical voices raised concerns on social media, the tweet was deleted,
and the same image was shared with a more politically correct message: ‘New times for citizen
security, with full respect for human rights.’
“When the homicide rates left behind by the ‘war’ are analyzed in detail and compared with
similar situations in countries like Brazil and Mexico, the idea expressed in the deleted tweet that
‘everything is permitted’ in the actions of the PNC seems like much more than a slip up by the
manager of the official Twitter account.”
#. Héctor Silva Ávalos, El Salvador Announces New Anti-Impunity Unit,15 Sept.
2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/el-salvador-announcesnew-anti-impunity-unit ...
“El Salvador’s attorney general announced the creation of a new anti-impunity unit in the
prosecutor's office that will work on politically sensitive corruption cases and have strong
backing from the US government, although it lacks direct international participation.
“Attorney General Douglas Meléndez said during a September 14 teleconference sponsored by
the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. that the Special Group Against Impunity (Grupo Espcial
Contra la Impunidad - GECI) will begin work in the coming weeks. El Salvador has been under
pressure to allow an international mission to assist the country in taking on corruption cases,
like those established in neighboring Guatemala and Honduras.
“GECI, however, will not be like the International Commission Against Impunity
in Guatemala (Comisión Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala - CICIG), which
empowered an international entity to conduct criminal investigations. Nor will it be like the
Support Mission Against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (Misión de Apoyo Contra la
Corrupción y la Impunidad en Honduras – MACCIH), an international body that advises the
country’s law enforcement agencies and provides political cover for the fight against corruption.
“El Salvador’s anti-impunity model entails the country’s Attorney General’s Office maintaining
sole responsibility, under the supervision of Meléndez.
“The attorney general said the unit would be made up of a select group of prosecutors. Three
officials knowledgeable about talks between the US State Department and Meléndez told InSight
Crime the United States will support the unit with training as well as financially.
“Meléndez made the announcement during a video conference with the Wilson Center-sponsored
conference in Washington. The attorney general spoke about the challenges his office faces in
trying to apply the law in El Salvador, especially where politically sensitive corruption cases are
involved.
“El Salvador’s Justice and Public Security minister, Mauricio Ramírez Landaverde, made a
brief appearance at the conference.
“Meléndez did not provide much detail on the new unit, but he did say that several prosecutors
close to him are putting the final details for its formation into place, and it could get off the
ground before the end of September.
“US officials in Washington -- both in Congress and the executive branch -- and in El
Salvador told InSight Crime that they have been discussing the prosecutorial project with
Salvadoran officials since at least July. They said Washington will provide the unit with
technical assistance, especially on corruption investigations involving current or former
government officials, as well as illegal enrichment and money laundering.
“‘Cases like those of Enrique Rais and the former attorney general [Luis Martínez], that of exPresident [Mauricio] Funes, or possible investigations against [former President
Antonio] Saca fit the profile,’ said a US official familiar with the project.
“On September 15, a source within El Salvador's Attorney General's Office told InSight Crime
that the new unit will start investigating and prosecuting files already opened against former
officials for embezzlement and illicit enrichment.
“During the conference, Meléndez announced the new unit after discussing the issue of
corruption within El Salvador’s judicial system. He said cases that his office has already
brought before the courts -- including those of Rais, Martínez and Funes -- serve as a barometer
of the judicial branch’s attitude toward corruption cases.
“Funes is charged with using his position as president to gain financial benefits and the former
attorney general, Martínez, is accused of accepting benefits from Rais in exchange for
manipulating court cases in the businessman’s favor.
“‘We have had our first experiences with the judicial branch, and in some cases we do not think
its response has been the most appropriate,’ Meléndez said. The attorney general was less
diplomatic in statements about judicial corruption he made earlier in El Salvador.
“‘It is not just the gangs that have cliques; the judicial system has them too,’ he told reporters on
August 31 soon after pressing charges against Rais, who runs a subsidized solid waste
management firm, and Martínez. The former attorney general is not only accused of favoring
Rais in several cases, but also of tolerating the fabrication of evidence in support of the
businessman’s interests.
“Meléndez said he expected the GECI project to encounter resistance.
“‘The issue of impunity has been around and it will continue to exist,’ he said. ‘You can’t hide
the sun with one finger.’ Meléndez told about 30 academics and journalists attending the
conference that the project has already encountered some criticism in El Salvador.
“The attorney general’s stance has generated reactions in Washington as well.
“‘It is not easy to investigate corruption,’ Representative Norma Torres told InSight Crime….
Torres said countering corruption was one of Washington’s main foreign policy objectives in
Central America.
“The government of President Salvador Sánchez Cerén has maintained almost since the
beginning of his term in June 2014 that El Salvador has no need of an international antiimpunity mission like CICIG in Guatemala. The El Sao Paulo Forum, which Sánchez Cerén’s
party is a member of, went even further during a June 2016 meeting in San Salvador and likened
support for such a mission to support for a coup d’état.
“Neither Sánchez Cerén nor his Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (Frente Farabundo
Martí para la Liberación Nacional - FMLN) have publicly commented on Meléndez’s antiimpunity initiative. However, the attorney general has been criticized by important members of
FMLN in relation to some of his investigations.
“One of the cases that has most upset party members is the arms trafficking investigation of a
former Defense minister who currently serves as ambassador to Germany, Gen. Atilio Benítez.
Blandino Nerio, an FMLN congressman, has even accused US Ambassador Jean Manes of
‘disrespectful interference’ in Salvadoran affairs, accusing the envoy of trying to influence the
congressional debate on whether to lift the immunity of Benítez….
“The Benítez case was a topic of discussion at the Wilson Center conference and is one of the
cases that had been shelved by Melendez predecessor Martínez. Meléndez revived the case not
long after assuming office.
“‘In El Salvador, we have qualified justice,’ Meléndez said ‘It’s like Monsignor Romero used to
say,’ he added, referring to the martyred and beatified former archbishop. ‘Like a snake that
only bites those who have no shoes. It is not easy to reverse the tendency given the power that
certain groups and individuals have accumulated in the country.’
“Meléndez was asked at the conference why his office had not pursued investigations of
opposition party figures who served in previous governments, despite official complaints having
been filed against them.
“The attorney general defended his neutrality, noting that he had revived investigations related
to El Salvador’s gang truce and initiated cases against mayors of both major political parties
accused of working with the gangs. Melendez also noted that he has investigated opposition
mayors for embezzlement of public funds.”
#. David Gagne, Case against El Salvador elites gets off to rocky start, 1 Sept
2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/case-against-elsalvador-elites-gets-off-to-rocky-start ...
“A judge has ordered El Salvador's former attorney general to remain behind bars despite his
having posted bail in a separate investigation involving collusion with a wealthy businessman,
an uneven beginning to a case that is sure test the authorities' capacity to prosecute high-level
corruption.
“Former Attorney General Luis Antonio Martínez will be held in prison for six months after the
Attorney General's Office presented evidence that he unlawfully disseminated the wiretapped
phone conversations of a priest, reported La Prensa Gráfica.
“The charges stem from an investigation into Antonio Rodríguez, better known as Father Toño,
who in September 2014 plead guilty to bringing prohibited items into prisons and influence
trafficking. Prosecutors say Martínez, who was Attorney General at the time, copied the private
conversations of Father Toño and shared them with leaders of the Catholic Church in El
Salvador. Salvadoran law stipulates that illegally divulging information obtained from wiretaps
carries a prison sentence of between four and eight years, according to El Mundo.
“Martínez was initially arrested on August 22 for obstruction of justice in cases related to
prominent businessman Enrique Rais. Rais and nine other suspects were also detained. But on
August 28, a judge from the Seventh Court of Peace ordered that Rais and the other suspects be
placed under house arrest. They left prison the following day after posting bail, but the
authorities kept Martínez in prison because of the pending charges related to the Father Toño
case.
“On August 29, the Attorney General's Office announced it will appeal the court's decision to
release the suspects on house arrest. The prosecutor's office also said that it was considering
investigating the judge who made the ruling.
“The investigation into Rais and Martínez has gotten off to a rocky start. The judge's order
granting Martínez and Rais house arrest may have been the product of foul play, as the Attorney
General's Office appears to suspect, but it's also possible that prosecutors didn't present a strong
enough case. Either way, the controversial ruling illustrates the challenges that surely lie ahead
for an Attorney General's Office that does not have a lot of experiencing prosecuting such highprofile corruption cases.
“Given that they are the country's former top prosecutor and a businessman with high-level
political connections, the investigation into Martínez and Rais represents a major test for the
Salvadoran justice system. Last week's arrests were likely an attempt to limit Martínez's and
Rais' influence over the criminal proceedings as the Attorney General's Office builds a stronger
case against them. Rais' release may have foiled that strategy, although prosecutors were able to
keep Martínez in detention. As a result, Rais may well have greater leverage than the former
attorney general as the case works its way through the courts.
“The investigation nonetheless remains on solid footing. Attorney General Douglas Meléndez,
who replaced Martínez, has already shown signs that he is more willing to take on corruption
than his predecessor. Earlier this month, the Attorney General's Office raided the properties of a
close associate to former President Mauricio Funes in search of evidence linking him to
corruption.
“But Meléndez recognizes that prosecuting corrupt elites will likely be met with resistance from
influential people who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo of impunity. In a
March 2016 letter to a US congressman, the attorney general expressed concern about ‘the
intention of groups outside the institution to interfere in cases involving corruption and probity,
in ongoing investigations or future investigations.’
“Furthermore, unlike in neighboring Guatemala and Honduras, there is no international antiimpunity commission set up in El Salvador to help investigate politically-sensitive cases like
corruption. Some 97 percent of Salvadorans are in favor of the creation of such an institution, a
clear signal that the population has little faith in the government's ability or willingness to
prosecute corrupt elites.
“The Attorney General's Office has an opportunity to start to change that perception by carrying
out a solid investigation against Rais and Martínez that ends in convictions. But if the last few
weeks are any indication, completing that task will be anything but easy.”
#. Sean Tjaden, El Salvador Ex-President Leaves Country amid Corruption Probe,
19 Aug. 2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/el-salvadorex-president-leaves-country-amid-corruption-probe ....
“Former President Mauricio Funes has reportedly left El Salvador on business as authorities
raid properties in search for evidence he committed acts of corruption while in office, a case
likely to test the new attorney general's resolve to combat impunity for high-level politicians.
“On August 17, El Salvador's Attorney General's Office raided seven properties belonging
to Miguel Menéndez, known as ‘Mecafé,’ in search of documents that would reveal corrupt acts
committed by Funes during his 2009-2014 presidential term, La Prensa Grafica
reported. Mecafé led the ‘Friends of Mauricio’ movement that supported Funes during his 2009
presidential bid. He is also the owner of the company that won the greatest number of private
security contracts awarded by the Funes administration, according to the Salvadoran news
outlet.
“‘Since the Funes administration, it is known to all that there have been many acts of corruption
involving these companies’ of Mecafé, said Andrés Amaya, head of the Anti-Corruption Unit
within the Attorney General's Office.
“Funes wrote on Twitter on August 18 that he is no longer in El Salvador. The former president
said he is traveling to do consultancy work, not ‘fleeing’ the country. He has repeatedly denied
any wrongdoing, and called the investigation ‘ridiculous’ and a ‘show.’ …
“Funes is being investigated for illicit enrichment, embezzlement, participation in illicit
business, and influence trafficking, according to El Diario de Hoy. The Supreme
Court ordered the freezing of four of Funes' bank accounts and several other assets back in
February, also for suspected illicit enrichment.
“The investigation is a positive sign Attorney General Douglas Meléndez, who was sworn in to
office in January, is willing to tackle political corruption. But no arrest warrant has yet been
issued for Funes, and the Attorney General's Office has not formally indicted the former
president, a potential sign that Meléndez is not prepared to seek a conviction.
“Meléndez is under added pressure because he succeeded Luís Martínez, an attorney general
who faced down allegations of corruption. Last December, six members of the US House of
Representatives signed a letter urging Salvadoran authorities to select a new attorney general
‘focused on defeating corruption and organized crime.’
“Allegations of corruption among high-level officials in El Salvador extend beyond Funes
and Martínez. Funes' two immediate predecessors, Francisco Flores (1999-2004) and Elías
Antonio Saca (2004-2009) have also come under investigation for using their high office for
personal enrichment. Flores was ordered to stand trial but died in January 2016 before the case
went to court. While both Saca and Flores were with the opposition party, Funes was president
for the governing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (Frente Farabundo Martí para la
Liberación Nacional -FMLN).
“Given that El Salvador's last three presidents have been investigated for corruption, it is hardly
surprising that a reported 97 percent of Salvadorans are in favor of creating an international
anti-impunity commission similar to the ones that have been set up in
neighboring Guatemala and Honduras.”
#. Hector Silva Avalos and Bryan Avelar, 3 Aug 2016, available at
http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/case-against-el-salvador-s-ms13reveals-state-role-in-gang-s-growth ...
“A massive operation that has bared the finances of El Salvador’s Mara Salvatrucha (MS13)
gang offers compelling evidence of a long suspected theory: government benefits extended to the
country’s gang leaders in connection with a 2012-2013 truce were used to strengthen their
criminal organizations.
“The Attorney General’s Office said ‘Operation Check’ (Operación Jaque) began in 2015, but
built on a larger investigation initiated in 2013, immediately after the government-supported
truce between the rival MS13 and Barrio 18 gangs fell apart. The investigation went public last
week with the issuing of 120 arrest warrants and 157 raids on gang linked businesses and
properties.
“Of those wanted in connection with the case, 77 are under arrest or were already doing time
and have been presented in court, including a half dozen considered to be leaders with access to
the gang’s finances.
“Court documents presented this week in San Salvador indicate that the MS13 leaders collected
some $25 million during the truce. The investigation found that one of the gang’s top financial
advisors actually drew a government salary from an important municipality in the greater San
Salvador area. The same gang leader was issued a permit to carry a weapon shortly after his
release from prison in 2013.
“Marvin Adaly Ramos Quintanilla, alias ‘Piwa,’ is a historic MS13 leader who took part in the
2012 truce negotiations. Ramos left the gang before the truce fell apart in 2013, and became an
evangelical pastor.
“Prosecutors allege that Ramos continued to serve the gang as a chief financial advisor. He is
alleged to be the architect of a business empire that includes bus lines, car washes and
prostitution houses. Investigators say Ramos consolidated his leadership within the gang in
2015, after the current administration moved imprisoned gang leaders who had brokered the
truce to a maximum security prison in Zacatecoluca, known to the inmates as “Zacatraz.”
“The previous administration of President Mauricio Funes had moved the high-profile prisoners
to a less security facility in order to facilitate their communications and thus their ability to
manage the truce.
“‘He was mentioned by members of that same structure as one of the individuals benefitted by
the government who received $25 million as a consequence of the so-called gang truce,’ the
judge said of Ramos as she remanded him and 76 other defendants to custody in order to stand
trial.
“It was unclear where that figure came from. A prosecutor assigned to the case said that it was
overhead in wiretaps of Ramos’ communications. The Attorney General’s Office, however, has
not produced that evidence in court.
“The indictment characterizes Ramos as a key member of ‘The Federation,’ a form of parallel
leadership set up by the MS13’s ‘ranfla,’ or historic, imprisoned leadership, in order to
strengthen the gang’s operations outside prison walls. As InSight Crime has reported, Attorney
General Douglas Meléndez has said these leaders, both inside prison and on the outside, did not
share the bulk of the gang’s wealth with the thousands of rank and file members of the MS13.
“Ramos was released from prison in October 2013 after serving 15 years for murder. Within
three months of his release Ramos was issued a gun permit by Defense Minister David Munguía
Payés. Gen. Muguía Payés was the principal architect of the gang truce while serving as
minister of Public Security during the Funes administration.
“The general said he issued the alleged gang leader a gun permit only after it had been cleared
by police and prison officials, but the head of the National Civil Police has said that clearance
may have been a falsified document.
“Ramos also secured a job with the mayor of Ilopango, Salvador Ruano, administering funds for
an program assisting at-risk youth. Ramos reportedly earned between $300 and $800 a month at
the municipality.
“Ruano confirmed having given Ramos the job, and said he did so on Gen. Munguía Payés
recommendation. Ruano told reporters: ‘If they are going to put me in jail, they should also put
Munguía (Payés) and (former President) Funes in jail.’
“Defenders of the gang truce, including mediators and members of the Funes administration,
have noted that it initially led to a dramatic decrease in homicides. The homicide rate in fact fell
by as much as 60 percent during the truce. President Funes himself was careful to distance
himself from the truce, although Munguía Payés maintains that Funes was always kept abreast
of the process. Funes did not shy away from taking credit for the reduction in homicides.
“Operation Check also has led to revelations about the MS13’s access to heavy weapons, some
of which are thought to have come from Salvadoran military. The revelations have fed long-held
suspicions about a gun trafficking network within the armed forces. Court documents filed by the
attorney general indicate the MS13 had access to M-60 machine guns aquired on the black
market after they were stolen from an army warehouse.
“Operation Check appears to have followed the line of investigation set by Attorney General
Meléndez when he took over the case at the beginning of the year: a massive investigation of the
gang’s leadership and finances. The court documents map out an extensive network of
businesses allegedly run by the MS13.
“Beyond those revelations, the case illustrates how the gang truce supported at the highest levels
of El Salvador’s government helped to financially and organizationally strengthen both the
gang’s historic leadership and the parallel Federation. In fact, the prosecutor’s case suggests
the Federation was created as a byproduct of the gang truce.
“In May, Attorney General Meléndez directed a similar operation that targeted truce mediator
Raúl Mijango and former prison and police intelligence officials who were accused of breaking
the law to facilitate the pact. The majority of the accused in that case have since been released
from custody, although the case itself is still open.
“In both the case presented this week and the one brought against truce mediators in May, the
Attorney General’s Office has presented arguments alluding to a government conspiracy and
alleged criminal behavior on the part of officials involved with the truce. However, Meléndez
and his prosecutors have said they do not have sufficient evidence to press charges against high
ranking officials like former minister Munguía Payés.”
#. EFE, Weak State Encourages Death Squads in El Salvador, Ombudsman Says,
28 July 2016, available at http://www.efe.com/efe/english/world/weak-stateencourages-death-squads-in-el-salvador-ombudsman-says/50000262-2998290 ...
“The lack of internal discipline in the security forces, a high tolerance for abuses and the
warlike tone of discourse about crime in El Salvador create an environment that favors the
emergence of death squads, national ombudsman David Morales told EFE.
“The Central American country registered 3,050 violent deaths in the first six months of this
year, the bloodiest period of the last decade.
“The mayhem is due mainly to criminal gangs and the battle between the gangsters and the
security forces.
“‘We have identified clearly a pattern of violence that in El Salvador is known as extermination
violence ... for purposes of social cleansing,’ Morales said.
“The ‘social cleansing’ takes two forms: clandestine death squads and extrajudicial executions
carried out by security forces, he said.
“The ombudsman's office is currently investigating 161 murders attributed to death squads and
119 possible extrajudicial executions going back to 2013.
“Death squads often wear uniforms similar to those of the security forces and are armed with
long guns, Morales said, giving rise to suspicions that the extermination units are sponsored by
elements within the government.
“He acknowledged a lack of hard evidence to substantiate a link between death squads and
officials.
“Morales said that extrajudicial executions tend to happen in the context of shootouts - real or
fabricated - between security forces and suspects.”
#. David Gagne, 97% of El Salvador Wants International Anti-Corruption Body,
22 July 2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/97-of-elsalvador-citizens-want-international-anti-corruption-body .....
“El Salvador citizens are almost unanimously in favor of creating an international
commission to investigate organized crime and corruption in the country, a sharp rebuke of
the current administration's anti-crime strategy and handling of politically sensitive cases.
“Nearly 97 percent of respondents to a poll (pdf) published by the Central American University
(Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas - UCA) said they support the government
establishing an international commission to investigate cases of corruption and organized
crime.
“More than 58 percent of pollsters said they believe there is "a lot" of corruption within the
Legislative Assembly; only 16.4 percent said there was little or no corruption.
“The survey, which asked 1,262 adults to evaluate the government's performance during the
second year of President Salvador Sánchez Cerén's term in office, also reflected negative
opinions about the country's current security strategy.
“An increase in crime was considered to be the ‘principal failure’ of the Sánchez Cerén
administration, receiving over 35 percent of the vote. (see chart below) Slightly more than 53
percent of those surveyed said the government's new ‘extraordinary measures,’ which have
limited communication between incarcerated gang members and the outside world, have had
‘little’ or ‘no’ effect on reducing gang crimes.
“The survey indicates there is a deep mistrust among Salvadoran citizens that their
government is capable of reducing widespread corruption and crime on its own. This
overwhelming response may reignite debate about the establishment of an international anticorruption body, which have already been created in neighboring Guatemala and Honduras.
“The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Comisión Internacional
Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala - CICIG) has uncovered numerous corruption rings within
the government, including several allegedly run by a president and his vice president. The
Support Mission Against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (Misión de Apoyo Contra la
Corrupción y la Impunidad en Honduras – MACCIH) began operations earlier this year. El
Salvador, however, has refused to create such a body, instead opting for an anti-impunity
program that has a narrower mandate and lacks the investigative powers of the CICIG.
“Authorities in El Salvador may well be afraid of the potential for an international
commission to reveal discreet links between government officials and organized crime. El
Salvador's former Attorney General, Luis Martínez, -- who was opposed to the creation of a
CICIG-like body -- has been suspected of obstructing investigations into Jose Adan Salazar
Umaña, alias ‘Chepe Diablo,’ the presumed head of the Texis Cartel. Authorities have yet to
convict Chepe Diablo -- who has also had business dealings with current Vice President Óscar
Ortiz -- despite being named a drug ‘kingpin’ by the United States in 2014.
“On the security front, El Salvador's homicide rate climbed to over 100 per 100,000 people last
year, the highest in Latin America, and murders have increased during the first half of 2016.
The government has mostly relied on a repressive, hardline approach that targets the street
gangs.
“The government has attributed a decline in homicides that began in April to the
extraordinary measures roll-out, but the gangs say the decrease is due to a non-aggression
pact they agreed to at the end of March.”
#. Mike LaSusa, El Salvador Prosecutor Charges Police in Extrajudicial
Executions, 11 July 2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/newsbriefs/el-salvador-police-arrested-in-connection-with-san-blas-massacre ...
“El Salvador’s attorney general has accused several police officers of participating in a highprofile case of extrajudicial killings, signaling a desire to rein in heavy-handed anti-gang tactics
that have been linked to increases in violence and human rights abuses.
“In a July 8 press conference, Attorney General Douglas Meléndez announced that his office
had ordered the arrest of seven members of the national police in connection with the March 26,
2015, killing of eight people at the San Blas farm in San Jose Villanueva.
“Meléndez also said that a total of 22 suspects, including police officers and business owners,
had been ordered detained on charges that they belonged to a criminal structure that carried out
murders for hire.
“‘I said it a few days ago. We cannot allow our country to turn into the Wild West,’ Melendez
said, referencing earlier comments. ‘This case is a demonstration of that, where we have
indications that there were summary executions of people who did not even have a criminal
record.’
“The police stood by their version that eight members of a ‘criminal structure’ were killed at San
Blas in a shootout with officers. National Civil Police Director Howard Cotto also held a press
conference on July 8, telling reporters ‘we are absolutely sure that we acted within the
framework of the law.’
“However, an investigation published last year by the news outlet El Faro concluded ‘that those
killed were summarily executed and arranged to appear as if they died in a shootout.’ More
recently, El Salvador’s inspector general for human rights came to similar conclusions.
“The arrest orders, combined with Meléndez’s statements, strongly suggest that the attorney
general is attempting to send a message that police must act lawfully when carrying out
operations against the country’s powerful gangs. Other government officials have supported
aggressive police tactics. Vice President Óscar Ortiz said last year that police who feel
threatened should use deadly force against gang members ‘without any fear of suffering
consequences.’
“Meléndez’s office has brought charges against officials suspected of collaborating with the
country’s powerful gangs, including mayors and political figures linked to a controversial,
government-brokered 2012 truce. The charges in the San Blas case signal that his office will not
turn a blind eye to misconduct on the part of the police.
“It remains to be seen, however, whether the attorney general’s actions will lead to a change in
policing policies. The Salvadoran government appears to be committed to continuing its ‘iron
fist’ approach to the gangs, despite the fact that a majority of citizens believe that the
‘extraordinary measures’ have shown poor results thus far.”
#. Hector Silva Avalos, El Salvador FMLN leader investigated for drug
trafficking, 5 July 2017, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/elsalvador-fmln-leader-investigated-for-drug-trafficking .....
“El Salvador's attorney general has opened an investigation to determine whether José Luis
Merino, one of the three chief leaders of the ruling FMLN party, is involved in drug and
weapons trafficking.
“Merino is a member of the political commission of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation
Front (Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional - FMLN) and a congressman in the
Central American Parliament. He has been one of the financial brains of the former guerrilla
army turned political party since the end of El Salvador's 12-year civil war in 1992.
“Attorney General Douglas Meléndez said he has reopened an old investigation of Merino and
will add to it accusations made by US Senator Marco Rubio in a June 29 hearing.
“‘You've got the right hand man of the president of El Salvador, José Luis Merino. This guy is a
top-notch, world class money launderer, arms smuggler for the FARC as well as corrupt
Venezuelan officials,’ Rubio said during a hearing on global corruption at the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee. ‘Why is this guy not sanctioned?’
“The FMLN was quick to dismiss Rubio's accusations in a press statement that characterized the
senator as a ‘political loser’ mounting a politically-motivated attack.
“The attorney general, however, said he was looking into it. ‘There is an investigation of events
related to Mr. Merino that was opened in 2014,’ Meléndez told reporters in El Salvador, adding
that it was ‘related to the issue of drugs and weapons.’…
“A source in Meléndez's office told InSight Crime that the attorney general has asked his staff to
review the old accusations and include them in a new file that he decided to open after hearing
Rubio's statement….
“The pre-existing investigative file was opened in 2014 by the attorney general at that time, Luis
Martínez, after Spanish newspaper ABC published a story alleging that one of Merino's staffers
had made contact with officials of President Nicolás Maduro's administration in Venezuela to
arrange flights presumably carrying illegal drugs. Meléndez's staff said former attorney general
Martínez failed to advance with that investigation.
“The ABC story, based partly on US sources, said that in 2011 one of Merino's deputies asked
Maduro's secretary to expedite flying permits for an airplane bearing the US registration
N769M, owned by Execuflight, a company linked to Salvadoran businessman Enrique Rais.
Venezuelan sources told InSight Crime that N769M had asked permission at least twice to fly
over Apure, an area signaled by the US State Department as a cocaine hub.
“This is not the first time José Luis Merino, alias ‘Comandante Ramiro Vásquez,’ has been
mentioned in connection with drug crimes.
“In 2008, Colombian officials reported emails from Merino showed up on the laptop of slain
guerrilla commander Raul Reyes, of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas
Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia FARC). Reyes was killed in a Colombian air strike and
assault on a guerrilla camp across the border in Ecuador. The recovered emails linked Reyes
and the FARC to Venezuelan officials and others, including Merino. Merino's name appeared in
several emails related to an arms trafficking operation.
“El Salvador also opened an investigation, but -- as with the 2014 investigation -- it never
advanced. Merino and the FMLN have consistently dismissed the accusations as politicallymotivated attacks fabricated by right-wing opponents and the media.
“US law enforcement officers told InSight Crime that Merino has been a person of interest for
Washington for almost a decade now….
“The file that Meléndez is opening now will be at least the fourth investigation in which José
Luis Merino's name is included. None of the previous investigators pursued drug and weapons
trafficking allegations, and to have a Salvadoran attorney general say he is investigating the
FMLN strongman for those alleged crimes is unprecedented.”
#. Luis Fernando Alonso, El Salvador inmates using WhatsApp for Extortion:
Official, 28 June 2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/elsalvador-inmates-using-whatsapp-extortion-official ....
“Inmates in El Salvador are reportedly conducting extortion operations via smartphones despite
new measures to curb the criminal activity, showcasing how criminals continue to find new ways
to skirt government regulations within the prisons….
“Hernández did not offer details on how the inmates were accessing Wi-Fi networks from within
the prisons. But he explained that in the past, family members of inmates have moved close to the
prisons to provide their relatives with internet signals, according to El Diario de
Hoy. Authorities have raided these homes since the extraordinary measures were established,
but the inmates continue to have internet access….
“The admission by El Salvador's police director reveals how inmates keep finding ways to foil
the government's repeated attempts to crack down on criminal operations within the prisons.
“In December of last year, the government tried to limit illicit cash flows into the prisons with
a debit-based "zero cash" system. But by January, authorities had seized some $11,000 in cash,
in addition to 300 cell phones and 700 sim cards. Past attempts to cut cell phone signals within
the prisons have also proven difficult to implement.
“It’s not just the inmates that are actively subverting the government's attempts to reduce crime
within the prisons. Last month, several police officers were arrested for smuggling
cellphones and other illicit materials to incarcerated members of the Barrio 18 gang. It would
not be surprising if something similar is occurring now, considering inmates need electronic
devices to use WhatsApp.
“At the center of this issue are the country's powerful street gangs, including the two most
prominent, the MS13 and Barrio 18. According to a new report, gangs are responsible for 76
percent of all extortion in El Salvador, and many of those operations are believed to originate
from within the prison facilities.”
#. Sean Tjaden, Another municipality busted for gang ties in El Salvador, 22 June
2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/another-majormunicipality-w-gang-ties-in-el-salvador ...
“The police chief of Zacatecoluca is on the lam in the second case this month of a major
municipality allegedly infiltrated and corrupted by the same gangs that are the focus of a major
crackdown by El Salvador’s government.
“El Salvador’s Attorney General’s office said on June 21 that it issued arrest warrants for 13
people suspected of terrorist organization in the Zacatecoluca municipality, located in La Paz
department some 40 km southeast of San Salvador. Municipal police chief Vicente de los Ángeles
Comayagua Barahona and four of his officers are among those charged.
“Attorney General Douglas Meléndez said the officers were involved with the Barrio 18 gang in
an extortion ring that operated in the local market. He said a gang leader held in the
penitentiary located in Zacatecoluca directed the extortion ring. The charge of terrorist
organization is generally applied to members of the country’s violent streets gangs. Most of the
other suspects were identified as members of the Barrio 18.
“‘The director of the CAM (municipal police force) and other members of the CAM have been
supporting the Barrio 18 gang structure from within the municipality, providing them with
vehicular transportation’ and ammunition, Meléndez told La Prensa Gráfica. He added that two
gang members had been allowed to join the police force.
“La Prensa Gráfica reported that four police officers were among 12 people arrested in the
case, and that Meléndez believed an information leak allowed the police chief to evade capture.
“Zacatecoluca is the second major municipality to be implicated in this type of corruption
scandal in less than a month -- the mayor of Apopa, 15 municipal employees, and 14 gang
members were arrested during the first week of June. What makes the Zacatecoluca case
notable, however, is that the town is home to a maximum-security prison, and investigators
traced the extortion ring back to a gang leader held there.
“Additionally, Apopa and Zacatecoluca are two of 10 cities that participated in the
controversial 2012 gang truce, which marked a high point in the gangs’ political clout. The
conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance party (ARENA) runs Apopa, while Zacatecaluca is
governed by the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN).
“The corruption scandal in Zacatecoluca is yet another indicator that El Salvador’s gangs still
wield political power, as shown by their influence over the local governments. That the police
chief was tipped off to the raid may also indicate that the gangs’ infiltration of law enforcement
extends to the national level.”
#. Mike LaSusa, El Salvador Mayor’s Arrest Highlights Gangs’ Political Clout,
10 June 2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/el-salvadormayor-arrest-highlights-gangs-political-clout ....................
“The recent arrest of a Salvadoran mayor, charged with using his position to provide favors to
gang members in exchange for political benefits, illustrates the deep ties that can exist between
criminal and political actors in El Salvador.
“The Salvadoran Attorney General's Office (Fiscalía General de la República - FGR) confirmed
the arrest of José Elias Hernández, the mayor of the San Salvador-area municipality of Apopa,
in a June 5 message posted on its official Twitter account.
“The FGR alleges that Hernández headed a criminal structure, which offered goods and
employment to gang members -- paid for with public funds -- in exchange for the gang members'
votes and promises to reduce violence levels.
“Prosecutors have also accused the mayor of ordering the November 1, 2013, murder of a gang
member named Carlos Arroyo, alias ‘El Humilde.’ The motive for that alleged crime remains
unclear.
“Hernández has denied wrongdoing, suggesting the charges against him are politically
motivated since he belongs to the opposition ARENA party.
“A June 6 press release from the FGR announced that 15 municipal employees had been
arrested in connection with the case. A June 7 press release stated 14 gang members were also
arrested, and that charges had been brought against 22 gang members who were already in
prison.
“Citing an unnamed official, La Prensa Gráfica reported a total of 97 people face charges in
connection with the case.
“According to a source in the police consulted by InSight Crime, who is knowledgeable about
the case and who requested anonymity due to its sensitive nature, preliminary investigations
found that Hernández may have been paying several thousand dollars per month to
the MS13 gang and to a faction of the Barrio 18 gang known as the Revolucionarios, or
Revolutionaries, from the municipal budget.
“The source also said evidence indicates a city council member acted as a middleman between
the mayor's office and the Revolucionarios faction of Barrio 18, which appears to have been the
main beneficiary of the corrupt activities.
“The director of the National Civil Police (Policía Nacional Civil - PNC), Howard
Cotto, stated the municipal government purchased cell phones, vehicles and fuel for gang
members that facilitated their involvement in extortion, to which the local government turned a
blind eye. The gang members were also allegedly allowed to use a municipally-owned garage to
service their vehicles.
“Police director Cotto also indicated that the mayor's office provided employment to gang
members. InSight Crime's source says this allegedly included hiring gang members as municipal
street cleaners, and employing a gang member as the head of the local slaughterhouse.
“Additionally, Cotto has stated that the mayor's office permitted gang members to use public
spaces for concerts and other gang-related recreational activities.
“In an interview with the news program Frente a Frente, the former Attorney General of El
Salvador (2006-2009), Félix Garrid Safie, predicted similar cases would arise in the future.
“‘It seems to me that [the Apopa mayor's office] will not be the only one of the 262 mayor's
offices [nationwide] that has this type of intimate relationship with the gangs,’ said Safie. ‘I
think other cases are coming.’
“The allegations against Hernández, as well as dozens of municipal employees and gang
members, is a worrisome indication of the extent to which criminal groups can penetrate local
institutions and cultivate political clout in El Salvador.
“But the nature of that relationship remains murky. While gang members were apparently given
free rein to extort the local population in Apopa, using vehicles and telephones paid for by the
municipal government, there was not any clear quid pro quo. Was it business or was it politics
that motivated the mayor?
“InSight Crime's source said the mayor may have been receiving money from the
gangs' extortion activities. But he may also have exchanged municipal money for votes and
promises to reduce violence. If that's the case, it's not clear the gangs held up their end of the
bargain. Official statistics show Apopa's murder rate has risen in recent years, and InSight
Crime's source says the gang members hired as street cleaners often shirked their duties.
“In some ways, this local case mirrors recent developments at the national level. The Salvadoran
government is currently prosecuting ex-officials linked to a controversial, officiallymediated gang truce from early 2012 through late 2013. The truce has been credited with
contributing to a dramatic reduction in El Salvador's homicide rate. And while it did have an
effect on violence, it has also come under criticism amid indications that gang leaders were
provided with perks like guns, cell phones and prison yard ‘porno parties’ in exchange for their
participation.
“Still others, like InSight Crime contributing writer Héctor Silva Ávalos, have pointed out the
seeming hypocrisy of the current government prosecuting former officials for alleged ties to the
truce, even as evidence surfaces indicating members of the current presidential administration
previously sought political support from gangs and to use the lower murder rate to their political
advantage.
“The nexus between crime and politics is hardly new or unique to El Salvador; criminal
organizations around the world continuously seek to forge mutually beneficial relationships with
powerful political actors. However, the type of scheme seen in Apopa may point to an increasing
sophistication and ambition on the part of Salvadoran gangs, which, according to
some analysts, are attempting to use their political cachet in order to further their illicit
activities. Untangling the mixed political and economic motives behind these relationships may
prove equally troubling.”
[*American University's Center for Latin American & Latino Studies is concluding a multi-year
research initiative evaluating the transnational criminal capacity of MS-13 in the US and El
Salvador. For further information, go here. This project was supported by Award No. 2013-R2CX-0048, by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, US Department
of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in
this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department
of Justice.]
#. David Gagne, El Salvador forces kill 356 gang members this year, 1 June 2016,
available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/346-gang-members-dead-athands-of-el-salvador-police-2016 ....
“El Salvador's police reportedly killed 346 gang members in violent confrontations so far this
year, once again raising concerns that the country's bellicose security strategy is leading to
widespread human rights abuses.
“Howard Cotto, director of El Salvador's National Civil Police (Policía Nacional Civil - PNC),
said police supported by soldiers killed the 346 suspected gang members in an equal number of
confrontations since the beginning of 2016, reported El Mundo. That averages out to 2.2
confrontations -- and slain gang members -- per day.
“Cotto did not specify how many members of the security forces died in those confrontations.
However other reports indicate that suspected gang members had killed a total of 16 police
officers by April 12 of this year, and many of those officers were killed while off duty, outside of
the operations referenced by the police director.
“The number of confrontations have increased in recent weeks following the deployment of
combined police and military forces in a special unit tasked with hunting down gang members
who have reportedly moved to rural areas to avoid tightened security in major cities. Most of the
confrontations Cotto referred to have taken place in rural areas, El Mundo reported.
“The large number of gang members killed and the disproportionately low number of officers
being shot in those operations raises serious questions about the circumstances in which the
deaths occurred. Across Latin America, from Mexico to Venezuela and Brazil, the term
‘confrontation’ is used to explain lopsided body counts and cover up human rights abuses by the
security forces.
“The government's ongoing crackdown has raised similar concerns about El Salvador, where
there are already well-documented cases of extrajudicial killings by police officers. In a March
2015 case, PNC officers reported having killed eight criminals in an exchange of gunfire at a
coffee farm known as San Blas. An investigation by Salvadoran news outlet El Faro found that
the ‘criminals,’ who included a woman and two minors, had been summarily executed and that
their bodies had been repositioned to support the police's version of events.
“Salvadoran officials' militarization of the fight against gangs, both materially and rhetorically,
may be contributing to more aggressive action by an emboldened public force. In January 2015,
for example, then-PNC Director -- and current Security minister -- Mauricio Ramirez
Landaverde told his officers they should feel "complete confidence" when using their weapons
against criminals.”
#. Nelson Renteria, El Salvador gang truce mediator released from detention, 31
May 2016, available at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-elsalvador-violenceidUSKCN0YM0BI .....
“El Salvador released on Monday Raul Mijango, the mediator of a controversial gang truce who
was arrested in early May, but the legal proceedings against him will continue, authorities said.
“A judge in San Salvador ruled that Mijango, who is also a former congressman and a former
guerrilla commander, must sign in at the court every 15 days and cannot have any contact with
gang members.
“Mijango was accused of bringing banned objects into prisons and of being an associate of gang
members…
“The gang truce lasted from 2012 to 2014 and its breakdown has led to sharp levels of violence
in the Central American country.”
#. Joshua Partlow, El Salvador’s New Attorney General is the Point Man in the
War against Gangs, 30 May 2016, available at
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/05/30/el-salvadorsnew-attorney-general-is-the-point-man-in-the-war-againstgangs/?utm_term=.0cf2c1223e93 ….
“El Salvador, [Attorney General Douglas Meléndez Ruiz] will be the first to tell you, is a
country awash in crime. It is plagued by kidnappings, extortion, thefts from government coffers
and residents’ back pockets and — although it is just the size of Massachusetts — one of the
world’s highest homicide rates. That level of criminality, gang activity and impunity makes his
job a crucial one for the country. And with thousands of Salvadorans fleeing the violence headed
toward the Texas border, an important one for the United States, too.
“The government of President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, a former leftist guerrilla commander in
the civil war, has doubled down on an aggressive strategy against the dominant street gangs. It
will fall to Meléndez, who was 49 when he was sworn in in January, to decide whether to
prosecute police and soldiers if they commit human rights abuses, as well as to pursue cases
against public officials accused of corruption. Since starting the job, Meléndez has announced
charges against off-duty police officers allegedly involved in extrajudicial killings, but he has
also gone after civilians who he says broke the law in negotiating a 2012 gang truce, a move that
critics have described as a political witch hunt.
“In a recent interview in his office, Meléndez stressed that no one is above the law, but he also
warned that his office was underequipped and needed to be free of political interference. He said
the office’s $43 million budget should be raised to at least $70 million, to hire more prosecutors,
modernize equipment and add to a depleted fleet of vehicles. He also follows an attorney
general, Luis Martínez, who faced corruption allegations and calls from U.S. lawmakers for his
removal….
“Meléndez was alluding to neighboring Guatemala, where a U.N.-backed body called the
International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, known by the Spanish initials CICIG,
has helped prosecutors take down a president and a slew of high-level officials on corruption
charges. Meléndez said a CICIG-type organization was not necessary in El Salvador ‘at this
moment,’ but might be if his conditions weren’t met….
“Meléndez was something of a surprise pick by El Salvador’s congress for the top law
enforcement job. According to Salvadoran press reports, he grew up in humble circumstances,
attended law school in the capital and then began working for the government in his 20s. One of
his first government jobs was in the human rights department of the attorney general’s office, not
long after a 1992 peace accord ended El Salvador’s 12-year civil war. As a prosecutor, he has
handled cases brought against soldiers and police accused of assassinations and civil-war-era
crimes. While rising through the ranks, he developed a reputation as an honest and competent
prosecutor….
“Meléndez has seemed intent on pursuing corruption allegations against former presidents,
including Mauricio Funes. Melendez is also looking into Funes’s role in the gang truce case.
So far, that case has been Meléndez’s most controversial. This month, he announced that 18
people had been arrested, and that others were under suspicion, for their roles in negotiating
with gang members for a truce that lasted for two years. One of those under investigation,
columnist Paolo Lüers, who participated in the gang talks, said that they had been working on
behalf of President Funes and his ministers.
“‘It was a public policy defined by the government,’ he said, adding that the case ‘is completely
political’ and those in jail are ‘political prisoners.’
“Meléndez adamantly defended the investigation and said that the ultimate crime of the
negotiators was to offer the gang leaders the right to traffic drugs and commit other crimes if
they lowered the homicide rate. Meléndez didn’t specify who allegedly made such deals.
“‘The church, the state, can look for certain solutions to the problem. But can they violate
whatever law and commit crimes under this pretext? No,’ Meléndez said. The negotiators ‘acted
with total impunity and disdain for the law, and this is dangerous.’
“Meléndez has called for toughening the laws against gangs, but he seemed hesitant about the
effectiveness of what the Sánchez Cerén administration calls the ‘extraordinary measures’ it has
taken in the war on gangs. Those include sealing off several prisons from visitors and blocking
cellphone calls to cut off gang communications. The government has also deployed new rapidreaction battalions of soldiers and police for raids against gang members. Government officials
credit the policies with bringing about a recent dip in the homicide rate. Meléndez said they
should be temporary and ‘totally supervised.’…
“Meléndez has taken other steps to crack down on gang violence. After a massacre in the town
of San Juan Opico in March, he flew to the crime scene and announced that ‘the time has come
for the state to give answers to the people,’ adding that “every institution should show a
willingness to attack crime.” He has proposed legislation that would make it a crime to impede
free transit, essentially targeting anyone operating a gang checkpoint in a village, or acting as a
lookout. He also proposed punishing gang attempts to recruit students in schools.
“‘We can’t let the criminals hold territory,’ he said. ‘They have been in control over who enters,
who leaves, who sells, who does business. And whoever enters and doesn’t pay, they die.’
“‘Too many people, citizens, individuals, are being affected,’ he added. ‘And they don’t feel that
the rule of law is prevailing over criminals.’”
#. David Gagne, Pessimism Pervades El Salvador as Security Crisis Continues, 30
May 2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/pessimismpervades-el-salvador-as-security-crisis-continues ....
“Citizens in El Salvador are doubtful that the government's tough anti-gang measures will have
any impact, further indication that the public has little faith in the authorities to pull the country
out of a seemingly intractable security crisis.
“Fifty-eight percent of respondents to a recent poll commissioned by Salvadoran newspaper El
Diario de Hoy said they do not think the government's implementation of ‘extraordinary
measures’ to combat the gangs are producing good results…. El Salvador's Congress approved
the measures at the beginning of April, which tighten restrictions on incarcerated gang members
in an attempt to reduce criminal activity within the prisons. …
“Pessimism about El Salvador's security situation -- and the government's ability to improve it -is permeating the country. One poll earlier this year found 67 percent of citizens feel the
government's security strategy is yielding few or no results. Sixty-nine percent said the
government's recently launched security initiative, Plan El Salvador Seguro, will have little to no
impact on crime rates.
“This lack of faith in authorities is not based on political allegiances or preference for a
particular security strategy. In fact, most Salvadorans fall on the same ideological spectrum as
the government in that they both support a law-and-order approach to tackling crime. According
to Vanderbilt University's 2014 Americas Barometer survey (pdf), over 83 percent of citizens
think the armed forces should be involved in combating domestic security, the highest such
approval rating in Latin America.
“The public's pessimism most likely stems from something much more fundamental: citizens
simply don't feel safe. Even during the truce, when homicide rates dropped by more than
half nationwide, the gangs continued to terrorize local populations through other criminal
activities, most notably extortion. The truce eventually unraveled and murder rates have
since skyrocketed, while extortion operations appear to have continued unabated.
“Extortion, perhaps even more than homicide, has a tremendous impact on perceptions of
insecurity because it touches the lives of so many ordinary citizens. Salvadorans pay
an estimated $400 million per year in extortion fees, with public transportation and small
businesses being among the most frequent targets.
“Extortion is also one of the most intractable security issues because it serves as the lifeblood of
the gangs. Locking up large numbers of gang members has not helped, as many of the
gangs' extortion operations originate from within the prison walls.
“In the last several years El Salvador's government has gone from quietly facilitating dialogue
between the gangs to openly talking of waging ‘war’ against them. Despite these wildly different
security approaches, violence and crime remain a fixture in everyday life, leaving the public with
little cause for optimism.”
#. Alberto Arce, El Salvador throws out arms truce and officials who put it in
place, 20 May 2016, available at
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/21/world/americas/el-salvador-throws-outgang-truce-and-officials-who-put-it-in-place.html?ref=todayspaper …
“SAN SALVADOR — El Salvador’s attorney general has begun arresting law enforcement
officials who helped carry out a truce between gangs that, until just a few years ago, was central
to the nation’s strategy for taming its infamous violence.
“The truce, struck by El Salvador’s biggest gangs with the government’s support, won
international backing and helped bring down the nation’s devastating murder rate by more than
half in 2012 and 2013.
“But the government’s role in facilitating the truce caused controversy at home, and the nation’s
leaders have switched to a very different approach, cracking down in a no-holdsbarred campaign to crush the gangs.
“Attorney General Douglas Meléndez has already arrested one of the main mediators of the
truce, along with about 20 law enforcement officials who helped carry it out.
“But Mr. Meléndez has an even bigger target: top officials in the previous government.
“The man at the center of the truce was the former security minister, David Munguía Payés, an
general who is now the defense minister, court papers show. Until now, he has remained
untouched.
“But the attorney general has General Munguía Payés in his sights. Mr. Meléndez, who was
appointed by Congress, is preparing to ask legislators to impeach the defense minister and
remove his immunity.
“‘We will go ahead with the prosecution, not only of the minister but of whomever it may be,’
Mr. Meléndez told The New York Times in an interview this week.
“He said he would also seek to impeach Ricardo Perdomo, who now heads El Salvador’s bank
regulatory agency and served as the country’s director of intelligence during the truce.
“Mr. Meléndez’s plan raises the prospect of a clash with President Salvador Sánchez Cerén,
who has repeatedly expressed public support for General Munguía Payés.
“Mr. Sánchez Cerén, a former leftist guerrilla who was the vice president in the previous
government of President Mauricio Funes, rejected the gang truce when he took office two years
ago.
“Instead, his government has chosen what it calls a ‘strong hand’ policy. It has yet to work.
“El Salvador has become the most violent peacetime country in the world. There are more than
20 homicides a day, in a nation of 6.1 million people, as the gangs fight each other and the
security forces. The gangs have killed almost 100 police officers and soldiers in the past 12
months.
“As the death toll mounts, the government has clamped down tighter. The army now patrols the
streets in Humvees. The police command has given officers virtually free rein to shoot ‘if they
must’ in encounters with criminals and promises them legal support in cases filed against them.
“The gangs are fighting back. One high-ranking gang member said in an interview that there
was now no possibility of having a new dialogue with the government.
“During the nearly 18 months of the truce between the country’s two main street gangs, Mara
Salvatrucha and Barrio 18, the homicide rate fell from an average of 15 deaths a day to just five.
There were days without a single murder.
“As part of the agreement, the government moved top gang leaders out of El Salvador’s
maximum security prison to regular facilities where they were able to coordinate with
lieutenants on the street.
“Gang members turned in their weapons at public events and the job programs were started in
10 municipalities with support from international donors.
“Now, Mr. Meléndez has arrested one of the lead mediators for the truce, a former lawmaker
named Raúl Mijango, as well as law enforcement officials working in the prison system and in
police intelligence for their roles in facilitating the agreement.
“Nineteen people are in custody since the arrests began on May 3. Two more people are
negotiating to turn themselves in, including the former chief of prisons.
“But General Munguía Payés, who was the military’s negotiator with the guerrillas during the
nation’s devastating civil war, plays a crucial role in the current government as a force for
political stability in the face of a restive military.
“Although the two administrations have diverged sharply in their view of gang violence, they are
part of the same political party, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, or F.M.L.N.,
which emerged from the leftist guerrilla alliance at the end of the civil war in 1992.
“‘To build the policy it has now, the government has to disqualify the policy that was in place
before,’ said Paolo Luers, a journalist and former guerrilla who was a gang truce mediator. He
has not been arrested, nor has Fabio Colindres, a Roman Catholic bishop who was another
mediator….
“‘It’s all political,’ said Adam Blackwell, a former official with the Organization of American
States who coordinated the technical committee that guaranteed the truce and anti-violence
programs. “There is no logic or rational reason for this.’
“The attorney general is ‘playing into the hands of the political discussion: ‘more police, less
crime, eliminating the scourge and the more we kill, the better,’ Mr. Blackwell added. ‘That
unfortunately is more popular than building community centers and community policing and
focused deterrence as a strategy.’
“When Mr. Mijango, the lead mediator, appeared in court this month, dressed in the same
prison whites as jailed gang members, he argued that, ‘There was a peace process’ in place….
“But Mr. Meléndez sees it differently. The document detailing the charges, which The New York
Times obtained, calls the truce a plot that allowed the gangs to reorganize and rearm and ‘to
make targets of the civilian population, soldiers and the police.’
“The attorney general’s case is based on charges of ‘illicit association’ with gang members. It
stems from allegations that the officials brought telephones into the prisons, and that prison
officials allowed gang leaders to meet by allowing the prison transfers.
“His plan, as he described it, is to pressure the lower-level officials in custody to declare who
was giving the orders.
“Some of the people swept up in the case were simply carrying out their assignments.
“Roberto Castillo Díaz, an undercover officer, was placed by the intelligence agency with the
mediators as they met with gang leaders inside the prisons. He was also in charge of picking up
more than 500 guns that the gangs turned in.
“In a report, Mr. Castillo said that his undercover mission had the support of the president and
the cabinet. In an interview, a cabinet member confirmed that there had been an intelligence
operation supported by the police, the Security Ministry and the presidency.
“Since Mr. Castillo’s arrest and the publication of his name in news reports, his wife, Rosa Lidia
Quintero, has gone into hiding, in fear for her life.. The Mara Salvatrucha gang controls the
area where she lives, she said, and nobody knew that her husband was an undercover police
officer.
“She accused the government of betrayal. ‘How can the state not protect somebody who was
planted undercover on a mission?’ she asked.”
#. Tim Rogers, El Salvador’s new plan to combat gang violence is insane, 20 May
2016, available at http://fusion.net/el-salvadors-new-plan-to-combat-gangviolence-is-insane-1793856924 ...
“El Salvador is one of the most violent and murderous countries in the world. And now its
government has devised a truly mad plan to combat the problem—by targeting people who have
tried to broker peace.
“The Central American government last month passed a new law that criminalizes any attempt
to ‘solicit, offer, promote, formulate or negotiate’ a truce with the gangs. The crime
is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
“This month the government took its crackdown on peacemakers a step further by issuing arrest
warrants for 21 people who were responsible for spearheading the 2012 gang truce.
“‘The government is trying to set an example so that no one contemplates dialogue
anymore,’ Paolo Luers, one of the only gang-truce mediators to not get arrested this month, told
me in a phone interview from San Salvador. ‘The government considers the gang issue to be
primarily a military problem that has to be resolved by force. So they are trying to disqualify all
other alternative solutions. The whole thing is absurd.’
“The government won't comment on the case, other than to say that their investigation is
ongoing.
“The 15-month gang truce, which fell apart in May 2013, led to a dramatic but temporary drop
in the country's murder rate. Critics complained that the process was rife with corruption and
impunity, and argued that the truce helped strengthened the gangs' control over the streets by
empowering its leadership behind bars.
“Now the government is opting for a military solution while cutting off any possibility for a
future ceasefire. In the past two weeks, the government has arrested former police
commissioners, prison wardens and chief mediator Raul Mijango for their roles brokering the
2012 gang truce. Mijango was arrested on May 3 and then paraded before a judge in his
underwear, as if he too were a gangbanger.
“The criminalization of the failed gang truce appears to mark El Salvador's irreversible
commitment to a military campaign against the MS-13 and Barrio 18. And if that's the case, the
U.S. should brace itself for a new tidal wave of Central American refugees arriving on the Texas
border in the months and years ahead.
“The swell has already started. Salvadorans fleeing violence are arriving on the U.S. southern
border in record numbers. More undocumented Salvadorans have been apprehended in the U.S.
during the first half of this year than in all of 2015.
“U.S. border patrol numbers show that nearly 10 Salvadorans are apprehended in the U.S. for
every 1 Mexican. That's an amazing discrepancy, especially considering that El Salvador is a
lot farther away than Mexico and has a population that's 20 times smaller. What's even more
disconcerting is that those people could be the frontrunners in what could soon become a much
larger exodus.
“El Salvador's government defends its ‘extraordinary security measures’ as an early success.
They point to public opinion polls and a recent drop in the murder rate as proof that the ironfisted policy is working.
“The gangs, which are extremely violent and run massive extortion rings across the country, are
wildly unpopular in El Salvador, where many citizens applaud the government's guns-blazing
approach to dealing with the problem.
“The gangs, however, say they have declared a unilateral ceasefire and that's the real reason the
murder rate is dropping.
“‘The homicide numbers from the past weeks show that we are men of our word,’ reads the
gangs' last joint communique. ‘Since we made the decision to suspend all offensive actions, the
blood quota has dropped from 24 deaths per day to 11. And most of the dead have been on the
side of the gangs since the government, far from suspending its death squad operations of
extermination, has only increased.’
“Despite the continued crackdown, incarcerated gang leaders are allegedly sticking to their
unilateral ceasefire in hopes of avoiding an all-out war with the government.
“‘The gangs' position is: The government invited us to war, and we didn't accept,’ Luers says.
“How long that remains their position is anyone's guess.”
#. Michal Lohmuller, El Salvador police implicated in murder-for-hire network,
20 May 2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/policeimplicated-in-el-salvador-assassin-network-targeting-gangs .....
“Details on an alleged police assassin network that killed gang members for profit heightens
concern over the rule of law and practice of extrajudicial executions by law enforcement in El
Salvador.
“According to El Salvador's attorney general, the murder-for-hire network consisted of up to 32
individuals, including six police officers, reported La Prensa Gráfica.
“The network is believed to have murdered 11 gang members and one other individual in the
departments of La Libertad, Sonsonate, and Santa Ana between 2014 and 2015.
“Authorities have so far detained 22 suspects who stand accused of aggravated homicide,
attempted homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide and illicit association, among other
charges.
“One former member of the network, referred to as ‘Sirio,’ has turned police witness, testifying
that members received between $100 and $1,000 per murder.
“Sirio reportedly told police that people who contracted the hit men expressed a variety of
motives. Their reasons ranged from being threatened by gang members, to avenging the death of
a loved one, to silencing or punishing a gang member for collaborating with police
investigations.
“The group reportedly posed as on-duty, uniformed police and abducted victims under the
pretext of conducting official business. A car was allegedly rented for the express purpose
of kidnapping victims, who were taken to remote locations and killed.
“The network also allegedly killed gang members for personal reasons. Sirio recounted the May
2014 murder of a gang member in San José Los Sitios in which four police investigators
participated. One of the officers, identified as ‘Agent Noé,’ wanted to kill the gang member
because he was harassing local residents.
“Over 80 police officers have been arrested on criminal charges in El Salvador so far in 2016.
“Investigations indicate the murder network was active at a time when violence in El
Salvador began spiraling out of control. This violence has been
marked by confrontations between gang members and security forces, with both sides explicitly
targeting the other.
“Rising levels of violence in El Salvador have been accompanied by indications of increased
‘death squad’ activity by police and civilians conducting extrajudicial killings of alleged gang
members.
“In this case, however, it appears the assassins' network was motivated by profit rather than
carrying out vigilante justice or taking part in a larger social cleansing effort.
“That such a network operates with active involvement of police officers suggests a broader
environment of lawlessness in El Salvador in which violence against gang members is tacitly
sanctioned and accepted.”
#. Sam Tabory, El Salvador gangs will be ‘defeated’ within one year:
Government, 13 May 2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/newsbriefs/el-salvador-announces-12-month-timeframe-for-confronting-gangs ...
“El Salvador's vice president has claimed that new government security measures will see the
country's street gangs ‘defeated’ within 12 months, a bold claim that history suggests is wildly
optimistic….
“‘We cannot tolerate these groups dictating the terms of security for families,’ Ortiz said. ‘We
have to find them, pursue them, and crush them, that is our mission in these next twelve months.’
“Ortiz pointed to the recently passed package of ‘extraordinary measures’ as a ‘good start’ in
this campaign. The measures, which are designed to combat the country's powerful ‘mara’ street
gangs, most notably the Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) and Barrio 18, target the ability of
imprisoned gang leaders to effectively operate from behind bars. Additionally, the government
has created a new anti-gang rapid response force and passed legal reforms that reclassify gang
crimes as terrorism.
“Joining the vice president at the press conference was Justice and Security Minister Mauricio
Ramírez. The minister pointed to falling homicide rates in recent months and what he said was a
two percent drop in overall crime over the past 12 months as evidence the government's efforts
are bearing fruit.
“Apart from a period of brief experimentation beginning in 2012 with a now-defunct gang truce,
since the early 2000s El Salvador has consistently approached its gang problem with a hardline
"iron fist" security posture, and the current government of President Salvador Sánchez
Cerén has made it clear it intends to persist with this line of action.
“However, history has not reflected well on ‘iron fist’ policies as gangs have only grown in
strength and violence has worsened during the times they have been applied. So far, the current
administration has been no different and Sánchez's time in office has seen more, not less
violence. El Salvador ended 2015 as the deadliest country in the Western Hemisphere and 2016
so far has seen a more than 50 percent increase in the average number of homicides a month.
While murders did drop dramatically in April, it is far from clear whether the government can
take credit for this.
“The most dramatic decreases in daily homicide rates actually came at the beginning of April
after gang leaders themselves ordered their members to stop the killing in an unsuccessful
attempt to dissuade the government from enacting extraordinary measures.
“Government officials have suggested that high levels of violence are a necessary cost of the
administration's security strategy, intimating that things could get worse before they get better.
However, they have not demonstrated how their hard line policy will be any more effective than
the iron fist efforts of past administrations that failed to rein in the violence.”
#. Hector Silva Avalos, El Salvador govt turns blind eye to its own deals with
gangs, 9 May 2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/elsalvador-government-turns-blind-eye-to-own-deals-with-gangs ...
“El Salvador's government is attempting to legally bury any remnant of an old, officiallymediated truce between the country's two biggest gangs, seemingly oblivious to its own dealings
with the MS13 and Barrio 18.
“The truce, which resulted from negotiations sponsored by the previous government under
President Mauricio Funes and led to a dramatic reduction in homicides in 2012, has been
forcefully repudiated by current President Salvador Sánchez Cerén.
“Last week authorities arrested 18 former public officials and one of the principal mediators of
the truce. Attorney General Douglas Meléndez has moved very quickly to bring minor charges
against civilian mediator Raúl Mijango and several law enforcement or prison officials who
were involved in the effort. The truce was designed by former Security Minister David Munguía
Payés and supported by Funes.
“Attorney General Meléndez's attempt to prosecute the truce planners follows closely on the
passage of laws aimed at getting tough on the gangs. An amendment to that legislation made it
illegal to establish dialogue with the gangs. The legal crackdown follows several months of
stepped up enforcement, with the National Civil Police leading other security forces in an all-out
offensive against members of the MS13 and Barrio 18 in both urban and rural areas.
“However, this ‘mano dura,’ or iron fist, policy does not appear to apply to the people
leading El Salvador's two major political parties: Sánchez Cerén's leftist Farabundo Martí
National Liberation Front (Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberacion Nacional -- FMLN); and
the right-wing opposition Republican National Alliance (Alianza Republicano Nacionalista –
ARENA). Representatives of both parties have recently been revealed to have negotiated with
gang leaders in the run-up to 2014 elections, offering them benefits in exchange for delivering
votes.
“Soon after the truce makers were arrested and only hours before the Attorney General's Office
hauled them into court, the digital newspaper El Faro published a recording of Interior Minister
Arístides Valencia. On the recording, Valencia can be heard negotiating with representatives of
the MS13 and Barrio 18 for the gangs' support of the FMLN in the second round of the
presidential election, which ushered Sánchez Cerén into power by a small margin.
“Weeks earlier, El Faro obtained and revealed a video in which ARENA congressman Ernesto
Muyshondt can be seen and heard negotiating campaign support with some of the same gang
leaders. While Muyshondt negotiated on behalf of then-San Salvador Mayor Norman Quijano's
bid for the presidency, Quijano made getting tough on gangs a central theme of his campaign.
“Soon after assuming office, former rebel leader Sánchez Cerén said publicly he would not enter
into a dialogue with the gangs. He instead began an all out offensive on them that helped make
2014 the deadliest year since the worst days of El Salvador's 12-year civil war. That conflict
started in 1980 and was ended through dialogue in 1992.
“Last week's arrests and the subsequent court cases have mainly targeted police intelligence
officers who prepared the way for the 2012 truce. They had been acting under orders from Funes
administration officials and Raúl Mijango, one of two civilians who helped mediate the truce.
The other mediator is the military's bishop, Fabio Colindres.
“Meléndez told reporters on May 3, the day of the arrests, that his office was not trying to
criminalize the truce itself, but rather to prosecute crimes committed in carrying it out. The
charges include taking forbidden objects like cell phones into the prisons. One way the
government facilitated the truce was by making it easier for imprisoned gang leaders to
communicate orders to gang members on the outside to reduce killings. Other charges include
illicit association.
“The cases brought by Meléndez against a truce mediator and mid-level officials seem to
overlook the political implications of these prosecutions, given the degree to which the state
itself and El Salvador's political institutions have been involved with the gangs. The attorney
general's actions raise many questions.
“Meléndez says that he is also investigating whether or not the accused officials misused
government funds in spending some 2 millions dollars to finance the truce, although he has not
formally made that accusation. The attorney general's assertion carries with it an assumption
that police, army, and prison officials -- the latter belonging to the Security Ministry -- used
public funds to implement the truce. If true, that would indicate the Funes administration
adopted the pact as government policy.
“For now, Meléndez is confronting the complicated task of prosecuting the implementers of a
controversial public policy which was hatched and apparently financed by people much higher
up the political ladder; a policy which halved homicide rate despite concerns about longer-term
consequences.
“Attorney General Meléndez's credibility will depend in large measure on what he does with this
investigation of the gang truce, who he accuses, what he accuses them of, and even how those
charges are argued before the courts.
“What is clear is that Meléndez has taken up an investigation started by his predecessor, Luis
Martínez. His action can be interpreted as a political maneuver aimed at supporting the current
government's hard line policy toward the gangs. That policy has aroused serious concerns about
human rights abuses, including extrajudicial executions of a kind that were common during the
civil war.
“The cases can also be interpreted as part of a policy that seeks, through legal action, to close
the door on any possibility of future attempts to negotiate with criminal gangs. Or it can be seen
as an attempt to distract public opinion from lack of action on high-profile corruption cases that
have involved former presidents and other powerful elites in El Salvador. In the end, clear public
opposition to the gang truce makes any anti-truce measure a potential winner in terms of public
image.
“The cases also can be seen as yet another of many instances in which Salvadoran prosecutions
have concentrated on the little guys, not daring to get to the bottom of who gave the orders. It is
likely, given the continued denials of responsibility from former President Funes and General
Munguía, the final decision on the truce policies that were supported by the state will be made in
the courts.”
#. Nina Lakhani, El Salvador arrests negotiators of gang truce in new get-tough
policy, 4 May 2016, available at
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/04/el-salvador-arrests-negotiatorsgang-truce ...
“It was heralded as a bold attempt to curb decades of violence and credited with slashing El
Salvador’s murder rate by half. But four years after a truce was declared between the country’s
two main gang factions, the controversial ceasefire has been recast as a criminal conspiracy –
and its protagonists arrested as gang sympathisers.
“Sixteen people have been detained in a series of high-profile raids, as authorities used new
legislation outlawing dialogue with gang members to justify the arrests.
“Psychologists, teachers, senior police officers and prison wardens were among those detained
for their role in negotiating the 2012 truce between the powerful Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and
Calle 18 gangs.
“The most prominent figure caught in the roundup was Raúl Mijango, a former leftwing
guerrilla who fought alongside members of the current FMLN (Farabundo Martí National
Liberation Front) government in the 12-year civil war.
“Mijango, who was part of the team which negotiated the truce on behalf of the previous FMLN
government, is accused of illicit association and trafficking of illicit goods.
“The arrests come as the government of President Salvador Sánchez Cerén rolls out a new mano
dura – or iron fist – security plan which authorities hope will stem the killing by forcing the
gangs into submission. The nominally leftwing government is hastily planning makeshift prisons
to cope with projected mass arrests and has tacitly authorised the military and police to adopt a
‘shoot to kill’ policy toward suspected gang members….
“The arrests were hailed by the majority of citizens and the mainstream media, who squarely
blame MS-13 and Calle 18 for the bloodletting which has devastated the tiny Central American
country. The violence has steadily escalated since the truce started to collapse in 2013; last year
was the bloodiest since the war ended in 1992, which left El Salvador ranked as the most violent
country in the world.
“But leading experts condemned the arrests as politically motivated and warned of potentially
dire consequences.
“Adam Blackwell, the former representative of the Organisation of American States (OAS) who
helped facilitate the negotiations, said: ‘This is a vindictive sacrificing of the lambs – most of the
18 people arrested are decent public servants. Truce or no truce, the authorities need a
communications channel. Are they going to arrest the Red Cross who are working in the prisons
as well?’
“Half of those arrested held low-level administrative positions. Yet senior negotiators such as
bishop Fabio Colindres and the current defence minister, Gen David Munguía Payés, were not
detained.
“The FMLN first came to power in 2009 amid promises to use crime prevention and social
programmes to tackle the escalating crime rates, which they inherited from the rightwing
National Republican Alliance (Arena).
“In early 2012, government officials and Catholic church representatives brought together rival
gang leaders who agreed to stop killings and reprisal homicides. The murder rate immediately
fell by a half.
“But the truce was meant to be the first part of a negotiated peace process. The ceasefire should
have been followed by improvements in the inhumane, overcrowded prisons and the introduction
of prevention and reinsertion programmes within marginalised communities.
“This never happened. Former president Mauricio Funes was unable to persuade international
lenders to help, and private donors were prevented from funding programmes after the US
declared MS-13 a terrorist group.
“By the middle of 2014, the truce had collapsed. Last year, almost 6,700 people were murdered,
including an average of 30 a day in August….
“An academic gang expert, speaking anonymously because of the threat to criminalise those
working with gangs, told the Guardian: ‘At the height of the truce, the homicide rate was five per
day; now it’s 25. You don’t just walk away from that type of reduction – you bow out because
you have nothing to offer the gangs as there is just no money for prevention and reinsertion
programmes, and mano dura is not only popular, it’s cheaper.’
“The truce was controversial from the start, in part because the dialogue and subsequent deal
were clouded in secrecy.
“Fragile public support nosedived amid rumours that the truce strengthened and enriched
loathed gang leaders. Public disapproval increased further after unsubstantiated claims that
while murders had decreased, disappearances increased after the ceasefire.
“Paolo Luers, another of the principal negotiators, who was not indicted yesterday but is under
investigation, said blaming the truce for the country’s violence has widespread public and
political support.
“‘I’ve never concealed my participation in meetings with mediators and gang members, but
crimes were never planned. These meetings were used to discuss possibilities for preventing
crimes,’ Luers said.
“‘What worries me most is how the gang members will react, as now there is no way to talk to
them in order to prevent madness.’”
#. Elisa Ditta, Bloody Weekend in El Salvador Amid Impunity, 21 March 2016,
available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/bloody-weekend-in-elsalvador-amid-impunity .............
“Salvadorans witnessed a murderous weekend with the killings of two police officers, dozens of
alleged gang members and the seizure of a million-dollar drug shipment dramatically
illustrating the country's deepening security crisis.
“Police registered 14 homicides on Sunday, March 19 and 13 homicides a day earlier, including
the twelfth and thirteenth police officers to be killed this year.
“The Prensa Grafica reported that off-duty officer Samuel Arnoldo Medina was shot Saturday
afternoon, and that the decapitated body of another police officer, José Edwin Castillo Chávez,
was identified by family members on Saturday after they reported him missing on March 14.
“The Public Ministry announced via Twitter that at least 10 alleged gang members were killed
on Sunday. The ministry said four men and one women belonging to the Barrio 18 gang were
killed in a home in the department of Cuscatlán, and authorities said another three gang
members were killed in the city of San Miguel.
“El Salvador also had to grapple with incidents related to transnational drug trafficking over the
weekend. Authorities reported seizing a boat along the Pacific Coast of La Paz
department containing 350 kilos of cocaine, valued at $8 million.
“Headlines announcing multiple police and gang homicides have become all-too-common in El
Salvador, which this year has seen twice the number of homicides registered during the same
time period in 2015.
“Authorities blame this violence primarily on members of the Barrio 18 and MS13 gangs.
Nevertheless, multiple reports have cast doubt on such assertions. According to Public Ministry
figures, just over 26 percent of those convicted of murder in El Salvador in 2015 were gang
members.
“These numbers should be taken with some skepticism, as high impunity rates make it impossible
to say who is responsible in most murders. El Faro reported recently that the Public Ministry
only took one in ten murder cases to court in 2015 -- meaning that more than 6,000 murders
were never prosecuted.
“Others have raised concerns about alleged ‘death squads’ that murder suspected gang
members. In February 2016 police reported killing four alleged gang members in a shootout, but
witnesses said the four were captured alive and executed; similar to another case documented in
August 2015.
“The authorities' single-minded focus on the gangs as the source of El Salvador's troubles may
be making it easier for transnational drug traffickers to continue using the country's coast as a
key drug trafficking route.”
#. Mimi Yagoub, 480 Gang Members Infiltrate El Salvador Security Forces, 22
Feb 2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/did-480-gangmembers-infiltrate-el-salvador-security-forces .....
“Over 480 gang members or collaborators reportedly infiltrated El Salvador's armed forces and
police between 2010 and 2015, but these figures are likely inflating the gangs' true level of
influence within the security institutions.
“Over the past five years, at least 435 members of the armed forces were fired for being gang
members or having ties to gangs, according to data by the Defense Ministry's Public Information
Access Unit that was accessed by EFE. The military officials' alleged gang affiliations were not
divulged, despite requests from EFE that this information be provided.
“Another 39 aspiring police officers were expelled from the National Public Security Academy
over the same period, of which 25 ‘belonged to’ the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS13, while 13 were
from the Barrio 18 gang. Nine more active police officers were also dismissed for alleged gang
ties over the five years.
“Among the military officials dismissed from their posts were members of specialized units,
including the Presidential Guard and the Special Forces Command.
“2015 was by far the year with the most dismissals from the armed forces due to gang ties with
265 cases, an almost 200 percent increase from the number of cases reported in 2014, according
to EFE. (See graph below)
“To be sure, corruption within El Salvador's security forces is a critical issue. But the notion
that nearly 500 gang members have infiltrated the security forces since 2010 should be taken
with a grain of salt.
“As recent InSight Crime field research has found, the number of gang members in Central
America's Northern Triangle region (El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala) varies widely,
depending on the agency doing the counting. This is due, in part, to the confusion over what does
and does not constitute a gang member.
“For example, police officials may include girlfriends, lookouts, and family members as part of a
gang, even though they are not core members and are not considered members by the gangs
themselves. Although a collaborator and a full-fledged member have vastly different roles within
the gang, they are often lumped together in statistics such as those in the Defense Ministry
report.
“These statistics can also be self-serving. If gang infiltration is seen as a serious and credible
threat, it follows that the government will be more likely to allocate greater resources to the
security forces in order to combat these seemingly sophisticated criminal organizations. In
reality, El Salvador's street gangs are more akin to subsistence groups that are occasionally
involved in high-level criminal operations.”
#. Jennifer Kennedy, El Salvador sees increased violence between gang and
security forces say police chief, 19 Feb 2016, available at
http://latincorrespondent.com/2016/02/el-salvador-sees-increase-in-violencebetween-gang-and-security-forces-say-police-chief/#7tKBe3YdkwURrH4G.97 …
“El Salvador has witnessed nearly 100 gun fights between gangs and the country’s security
forces since the start of year.
“As reported by El Mundo last week, director of the country’s national police, Howard Cotto,
said that the number of gun fights and the total number of people killed during the conflicts have
both increased compared to the same period last year, when there were about two gun fights per
day.
“’We have seen three to four cases a day in the last two months,’ Cotto said.
“According to Insight Crime, with the number of conflicts between armed criminal groups and
the security services similar to that of Colombia and Mexico, and the fact that the country has
the highest homicide rate in the world, the situation in El Salvador ‘resembles a low-intensity
civil war’.
“The increased conflict between gangs and the country’s security forces has been attributed to
the gangs’. Last year, for example, following the murder of policemen at the hands of gangs, La
Prensa Grafica reported that authorities in El Salvador believed gangs in the country had
received orders to kill members of the police force.
“The article states the police obtained ‘specific information’ from gang informants which
pointed to ‘specific orders in a gang’. According to La Prensa Grafica, a police report stated
that one of the objectives of the order was for ‘the police understand that the control is in the
gang, and that they cannot kill gang members without retaliation’.
“This week, AFP reported that the U.S. Treasury has in fact added two people in the country’s
notorious MS-13 gang – Roberto Orellana and Romero García- to its sanctions blacklist, and
is accusing them of organizing the murder of officials in El Salvador.
“The acting director of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, John Smith, said in a
press statement: ‘From leading local operations to orchestrating assassination campaigns for
MS-13, Roberto Orellana and Romero García have sought to disrupt Salvadoran government
efforts to combat MS-13 activity We will continue to undermine the reach and influence of MS13 by constraining the financial resources of those who support it.’
“However, it is not only the country’s gangs that have been accused of escalating El Salvador’s
violence. Police and security services have also come under attack for their hard line approach
to curbing endemic gang violence.
“The circumstances surrounding the gun fight in Zaragoza, La Libertad, which left four people
dead, have been criticized by a report in El Faro. Contrary to police reports claiming four gang
members were killed during a shootout, two witnesses claim that the gang members had
surrendered themselves. The witnesses also maintain that one of the men killed was not a gang
member, and that he just happened to be in the house sleeping when the men being chased by
police entered, looking for a place to escape.
“Last November, an investigation carried out by El Diario de Hoy reported that 14 people had
allegedly been killed by members of death squads claiming to be policemen, and that those
targeted were not only gang members, but also teenagers who were not affiliated to any criminal
group. The investigation also alleged that the Salvadoran authorities had, in the most part, failed
to investigate the deaths.”
#. Sam Tabory, El Salvador gang boss had close contact with govt officials:
Report, 18 Feb 2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/elsalvador-gang-boss-had-close-contact-with-govt-officials-report ...
“An ongoing trial in El Salvador has included assertions that a gang leader was in regular
contact with politicians and other government officials, even though the country's former
president recently said that the truce involved no direct contact between the two.
“Evidence gathered from the cell phone of suspected gang member Rubén Antonio Rosa Lovo,
who faces extortion charges along with 67 other suspected gang members, suggests that
government officials were in contact with top gang leaders during the 2012-2013 gang
truce, reported La Prensa Grafica.
“According to prosecutors, forensic analysis of the purported gang leader's phone suggests that
Rosa Lovo was in contact with ‘a congressman’ and ‘a former security minister.’
“Communications recovered from the suspected gang leader's phone reportedly detail a
conversation in which Rosa Lovo agrees to supply votes to a particular lawmaker in exchange
for cooperation and support of the now-defunct gang truce.
“Both David Munguía Payés and Ricardo Perdomo served as security minister for former
President Mauricio Funes at different times during the era of the gang truce.
“While the truce was active, major gangs like the MS13 and Barrio 18 committed to halting
violence, and homicide levels fell accordingly. Funes has recently asserted that the government
was not directly involved in negotiating with the gangs, and merely supported the mediators who
helped brokered the truce.
“El Salvador's gang truce was controversial from the very beginning. Recently, however, critics
seem to be growing bolder in their attempts to impugn the actions of the previous administration,
while Funes appears to be ever more eager to disown the government's alleged role in the
initiative.
“The ongoing trial covered by La Prensa Grafica is not the only case in which court evidence
appeared to point to contact between gang leaders and key officials. In a previous case, a
protected witness reportedly testified that gang truce mediator Raul Mijango -- one of those
mediators that the Funes government has said it supported -- approved of a gang attack on a
police station.
“Critics of the gang truce have argued that the initiative gave the Barrio 18 and MS13 the
breathing room they needed to reorganize, consolidate, and strengthen. One concern is whether
the truce allowed the gangs -- in particular the MS13 -- to become more sophisticated criminal
structures, capable of smuggling drugs or weapons internationally.
“The US Treasury Department appeared to signal that this may be the case, after announcing
new sanctions against MS13 gang leaders for ‘orchestrating assassination campaigns against
Salvadoran law enforcement, military, and government officials.’ The Treasury Department first
designated the MS13 as a transnational criminal organizations (TCO) in 2012.
“The new sanctions from Treasury weigh in unambiguously on the side of those who believe the
gang truce strengthened the MS13. Along with assertions that government officials were in
closer contact with gang members than they now claim, all this ultimately makes it harder for
anyone to propose working with the gangs to reduce violence and death tolls.”
#. Arron Daughterty, El Salvador Govt Turned Blind Eye to Official’s Arm
Trafficking, 16 Feb. 2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/newsbriefs/el-salvador-government-turned-blind-eye-official-arms-trafficking ...
“A recent report points once again to the role high-ranking El Salvador military officials play in
driving that nation's illicit arms trade, helping fuel rampant gang violence and bloodshed.
“Since 2010 El Salvador's National Civil Police (Policía Nacional Civil - PNC) and several
other state institutions bought over $500,000 worth of guns, munitions, and bulletproof vests
from the arms businesses of retired army major Miguel Ángel Pocasangre Escobar, reported La
Prensa Gráfica.
“While not the Salvadoran government's largest arms provider, government entities continued to
do business with Pocasangre even after he became the subject of arms trafficking allegations.
“According to La Prensa Gráfica, Pocasangre first came to the attention of authorities in 2011
when an undercover agent was able to illegally purchase a weapon from a gun store.
Investigations into the case produced a protected witness for El Salvador's Attorney General's
Office (Fiscalía General de la República - FGR), who alleged that between 2004 and 2005
Pocasangre and another military official, Carlos Zavaleta Morán, worked together to steal
weapons from a military arms depot. These weapons were later sold with altered serial numbers.
“That witness, known as ‘William,’ first testified in March 2013, but the FGR would not formally
accuse Pocasange of arms trafficking until October 2015. During this interval the PNC, and
even the FGR, bought weapons from Pocasange on repeated occasions, despite the testimony
denouncing his activities, La Prensa Gráfica reported.
“Some of Pocasangre's alleged clientele also included convicted drug traffickers and money
launderers.
“Pocasangre's case is El Salvador's latest in a long line of official involvement in arms
trafficking, yet it is particularly embarrassing given the same government agencies investigating
him for arms trafficking continued to purchase supplies from him.
“Paradoxically, while the Salvadoran government has pledged to stamp out rampant gang
violence, members of the military have consistently been implicated in providing weapons to
gangs. In October 2015, the same month the FGR brought charges against Pocasangre,
authorities arrested a high-ranking officer of the Special Brigade of Military Security for
allegedly selling guns to gang members. The month prior, authorities raided the house of a
former colonel and found a stockpile of weapons, including sniper rifles, submachine guns, and
grenades. Officials believed the stockpile was also intended to be sold to gang members.
“This illicit arms trade helps fuel a conflict that has made El Salvador the bloodiest nation in the
Americas.
“Nonetheless, El Salvador is not the only Central American nation where an illicit arms trade
has underpinned high levels of violence. Neighboring Honduras is awash in illegal firearms, and
unregistered weapons have previously been estimated to be used in 80 percent of all crimes in
the country.
“Until officials take serious steps to rid the trade in illicit arms -- and official involvement in this
trade -- the region's chronic violence levels can be expected to continue apace.”
#. Oscar Martinez, El Salvador police kill, lie again, 16 Feb 2016, available at
http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/el-salvador-police-kill-lie-again ...
“Contradictory testimony surrounding the death of four alleged gang members at the hands of
police again focuses attention on alleged extrajudicial killings by El Salvador security forces.
“The El Salvador police department's official version fell apart again in the face of eyewitness
testimony of a scene that included several corpses. The police say they killed four ‘pandilleros’
(‘gang members’) in a shootout in a house in Villas de Zaragoza. Two witnesses say that when
they left the house, the four were alive and had surrendered. One of the dead is a worker who
was sleeping when three pandilleros, fleeing from the police, entered his house from the roof.
Even one of the police agents on the scene refuted details of the official version offered by the
Deputy Police Chief.
“Minutes before the police killed him, José Armando Díaz Valladares was sleeping in his house.
Armando, as he was called by family members, had worked all night in a plastics factory. He had
begun work Sunday night and returned home, tired, at 8 a.m. on Monday. He had something to
eat, put on an orange-colored pair of sports pants, and went to bed. His life partner, Dayana,
and their three-year-old child, Aaron, were also in the house, along with Sofía, Armando's
thirteen-year-old sister.
“Dayana was frightened when, around mid-day, she heard shots. She ran toward Armando.
Judging from the shouts she heard outside, it seemed to be a shootout between pandilleros and
the National Civil Police (Policía Nacional Civil - PNC). Although dominated by the Barrio
18 Sureños gang, the neighborhood is also surrounded by other areas controlled by the Mara
Salvatrucha (MS13). Police raids are frequent, and Dayana figured that perhaps the people she
heard running across their roof were police agents….
“But the first ones to enter the house from the roof weren't police agents but three pandilleros,
all of them minors. Dayana saw that at least one of them was wounded. The noise had awakened
Armando. Still in bed, he asked the pandilleros several times to leave. But then, ‘The police got
to the door, and they (the pandilleros) couldn't leave,’ Dayana recalled.
“On Monday, February 8, a communiqué on the PNC's website said that five pandilleros had
been killed in two armed clashes in the town of Zaragoza, a municipality in La Libertad
province. Deputy Police Chief César Baldemar Flores Murillo spoke about the incident while the
crime scene was still being processed. In 1991, in San Miguel province, Flores Murillo was tried
and acquitted of having covered up for ‘La Sombra Negra’ (The Black Shadow), a vigilante
death squad that targeted pandilleros.
“He said that on the morning of the killings, ‘subjects’ had attacked ‘a vehicle with
merchandise’ … in the center of town. When local police intervened, the pandilleros fired at
them. One pandillero died in the exchange -- some agents say he was 15 years old, others say he
was 24, or 18 -- and ‘the rest fled.’ … According to the official version, the police were told that
the pandilleros who fled had taken refuge in a house in the Villas de Zaragoza neighborhood,
about five minutes from where the shootout took place. When the police went to the site, the
pandilleros tried to flee over the roofs to the neighboring house, where another ‘exchange of fire
took place, in which four members of the criminal structure died.’
“This version said that the operation was carried out by members of the regional Police
Reaction Group (Grupo de Reacción Policial - GRP). The police said they found a shotgun and
a 9 mm pistol at the scene. Flores Murillo told reporters they also found ‘military knapsacks,
telescopic sights, and other items that, it can be presumed, they were going to use in their
criminal acts.’ The police at the scene of the crime only gave reporters the alleged names and
nicknames of three of the dead… They said nothing about Armando.
“‘Mom, they're saying that four people were killed. Armando was in the house. He stayed there,
they took us out,’ said a girl to a woman who had just arrived at the crime scene.
“She was far from the journalists when she said this, and did not realize that I could overhear
her.
“It was 4 p.m. on February 8. The police said they clashed with some pandilleros and killed four
of them in this neighborhood in Zaragoza. The girl was Sofía. She's 13, and lives in the house
where the bodies were. She said that when the police took her from the house, Armando and the
other three were alive. The woman is Ana del Carmen, mother of Armando and Sofía. Holding
her daughter's arm, she walked toward the police line, which circled the block around the house.
But the police, wearing black ski masks, were not letting anyone -- even the people who live
there -- approach house, #33. The woman broke down and cried out, ‘They've killed him!’ The
press filmed her. The girl moved her away from the cameras. Mockingly, a police agent shouted,
‘Oh, my little boy, he was taking a bath!’ …
“The girl sat on the sidewalk, the mother holding her arm. Four other mothers had arrived,
asking about their sons, but from the other side of the yellow line, no one answered them.
“‘They killed them in cold blood,’ said the girl, when I asked her what happened. She and her
mother had moved away from the reporters and the police. The girl was weeping. ‘There were
lots of them (those who entered the house),’ she told me. ‘They (the three pandilleros) jumped in
from the roof, and the police were right behind them. They pointed their guns at us and took me
and Dayana and the child outside. Armando stayed inside. It was around 1 p.m.’ …
“It was 5 p.m. The police did not let the mother enter the home until 9 p.m., where, without the
press being able to see it, the bodies had been removed in white bags and been taken to the
morgue in Santa Tecla.
***
“In 2015, the pandilleros and police began fighting each other more frequently. Sixty-three
agents were killed last year, most of them while they were off-duty. So far in 2016, more than 15
family members of police agents or soldiers have been murdered. The agents and soldiers have
gotten the message, acting more and more as if they were a party to a conflict, and not as
government authorities. In 2014, 40 percent of the complaints received by the human rights
ombudsman were against agents or soldiers; in 2015, it was 74 percent.
“The scene in Villas de Zaragoza is similar to what happens every week in El Salvador. The
police report that there was a shootout in which two or three or eight pandilleros died. They say
a police agent was injured but is out of danger or, in the worst -- and less frequent -- case, that
the agent died. The report says weapons were found, but says nothing about ballistics
examinations or other information about where the weapons came from.
“They don't let anyone see the crime scene, except in cases where there's no way to hide it. The
police Internal Affairs Department doesn't go to the scene, nor does it, in most cases, do an
investigation if no one in the press pays attention. As members of the Attorney General's Office
have told El Faro, the office doesn't provide more information on the case.
“The police report is regarded as true, as happened after the massacre at a farm in San Blas -just three kilometers from Villas de Zaragoza -- on March 26, 2015. The police killed four people
who were labeled as pandilleros. La Prensa Gráfica reported last October on the case of five
alleged pandilleros killed in Panchimalco. Again the police and army claimed the deaths were
the result of a shootout, but the forensic evidence and the testimony of witnesses suggested that
the victims had been murdered.
“Nevertheless, rather than questioning the official story, the press tends to accept what it's told
when it reports on such stories. In the case of Villas de Zaragoza, La Página reported that, ‘The
police were able to end the lives of four more antisocial types,’ El Diario de Hoy said, Five
pandilleros die in shootout with police;’ and Diario wrote, ‘Four pandilleros of the Sureños
wing of the 18th Street gang died Monday afternoon in a confrontation with the police in Brisas
de Zaragoza.’
***
“The financial officer of the plastics factory where Armando worked answered the phone.
“‘He was very friendly,’ he told me. ‘He didn't have anything to do with gangs. He worked
Sunday night. He came in at 7 and left at 7 in the morning. There's no instance of misconduct in
his personnel file. He began working here about four years ago; he was recommended by a sales
executive who's been working here for 35 years.’…
***
“A police inspector who was at the scene answered the phone: ‘At first, they (the pandilleros)
weren't in the house where they were killed. They only went there when they saw the police
coming,’ he told me.
“An investigator who gathered evidence at the scene also told me by phone, ‘I never saw those
military knapsacks that the officials say they found in the house. And the telescopic sight they're
talking about was like a toy. It wasn't something you'd use with a gun. We didn't even take it with
us.’
“On Tuesday at 3 p.m., we sent some questions to the PNC's head press officer. We asked him if
only two guns were found, how can the police claim that all four had participated in a gun
battle? We also asked him if the dead had records, and how the police knew that Armando was a
pandillero. A few minutes later, he answered: ‘This case is now in the hands of the Attorney
General's Office. They're the only ones authorized to provide information about it. I suggest you
ask them.’
“The Attorney General Office's spokesperson said that, for the moment, he had nothing to say.
***
“It was midday on Tuesday, February 9. The families were waiting for the bodies of their sons
outside the morgue in Santa Tecla.
“‘They had surrendered. They killed my son with so much hate that parts of his face are
missing,’ one mother said. She didn't deny that her son was a pandillero.
“I asked her, ‘Was Armando a pandillero?’
‘He wasn't part of that. He was simply resting in his house.’…
“The first corpse emerged from the morgue. It was Armando. His life partner, Dayana, got on
the microbus and went to the low-cost funeral home that was going to prepare the body.
“The document that the forensics office gave the family says Armando died of ‘gunshot wounds
in the thorax and abdomen.’ But when his body was examined at the funeral home, another entry
wound was found. He had a hole in his right ear, an abrasion on his neck and a hole in the
collar bone, as if a bullet had broken, caused a wound, and then broken again. It appeared to be
a gunshot fired from above….
“The testimonies of the two direct witnesses coincide. They say not only Armando but also the
other three alleged pandilleros were on the floor, some of them wounded. Dayana doesn't
remember if they were all bleeding.
‘I was looking at Armando. I was thinking about him. He put his hands on his head and threw
himself on the floor,’ she said. She's certain that there was no armed clash inside the house;
rather, there were three alleged pandilleros, 17-, 16- and 13-years old, sitting on the floor, and a
worker lying there face down. There were no shots when she was trying to negotiate with the
police. There were no shots when Sofía and Aaron, Armando's sister and brother, went running
out of the house. There were no shots when the police finally forced Dayana to leave.
The gunshots came later.”
*This article originally appeared in El Faro and has been reprinted with permission. The
content does not necessarily reflect the views of InSight Crime. See original here.
#. Elise Ditta, Three to four gun battles a day: El Salvador police chief, 15 Feb
2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/three-to-four-gunbattles-a-day-el-salvador-police ...
“El Salvador police reported that there have been close to 100 gun battles between security
forces and street gangs in 2016, signaling a continued increase in violence in what is beginning
to resemble a low-intensity civil war.
“At a graduation for police sergeants, National Civil Police (Policía Nacional Civil - PNC)
Chief Howard Cotto stated, ‘We have seen three to four cases [of confrontations] a day in the
last two months,’ reports El Mundo.
“This would represent an increase in gun battles from last year when between January to May
2015, there were approximately 250 armed encounters, or about two a day.
“Cotto mentioned various battles, including two shootouts that resulted in eight deaths in
Apastepeque, San Vicente, and a police chase that left four people dead in Zaragoza, La
Libertad, a case that is being scrutinized by El Faro.
“With the highest homicide rate in the world and security force-illegally armed group
confrontation rates at levels similar to Colombia and Mexico, El Salvador resembles a lowintensity civil war.
“Authorities blame most of the increased homicides on intra- and inter-gang violence. But they
blame the increased battles between gangs and security forces on gang aggressiveness towards
them. Unconfirmed reports in 2015, for instance, stated that members of some factions of the
Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) had been ordered to kill security forces. And factions of the Barrio 18
have ambushed police.
“Salvadoran authorities have responded by declaring war on the gangs, and in 2015, then
Police Director Mauricio Ramírez Landaverde -- who is now the government's minister of
security -- told law enforcement officers they had a green light to shoot gang members if they felt
threatened in any way.
“Some analysts question whether gun battle reports are accurate, and accuse police of excessive
force. For example, in the Zaragoza case, El Faro reports that the alleged gang members had
surrendered before being shot by police and at least one of those killed had nothing to do with
the gangs.
“This is not the first accusation of human rights violations by security forces. The Salvadoran
ombudsman reported that 92 percent of human rights complaints he had received from June
2014 to May 2015 were against security forces.
“Police themselves are quitting in record numbers because of violence and dismal labor
conditions. The government has responded by sending military forces to conflictive
neighborhoods, but they are also demanding higher salaries and better equipment in return for
increased deployments in the war against street gangs.”
#. Chris Kraul and Alex Renderos, Will arrests bring ‘real progress’ in fight
against impunity in El Salvador?, 8 Feb 2016, available at
http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-el-salvador-priests20160208-story.html ...
“The wheels of justice have turned slowly since the execution-style killings of six Jesuit priests
by El Salvador's armed forces in 1989, an event that shocked the world, brought sharp cuts in
U.S. military aid to the strife-torn nation and indirectly facilitated the peace agreement the
martyrs had sought.
“El Salvador had been in the midst of a civil war that pitted leftist guerrillas against the U.S.backed, right-wing government, which had gained infamy for its use of death squads and torture.
The war lasted 12 years, left 75,000 dead and opened floodgates of refugees fleeing to the United
States, many to Southern California.
“But few events in that time were more notorious than the shooting deaths of the priests.
“A measure of justice finally arrived last week when El Salvadoran authorities arrested four
former army soldiers accused of carrying out the killings, years after an extradition request from
Spain, where five of the six priests were from.
“‘This should lead to real progress toward the end of impunity,’ said Almudena Bernabeu, a
human rights attorney with the San Francisco-based Center for Justice and Accountability.
‘There are 18 people implicated in the murders and I'd like to see more arrests. But it's a start.’
“Bernabeu has pursued the case for the family of one the victims, Father Ignacio Martin-Baro.
She said she won't rest until all those she believes responsible for the deaths, including former El
Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani and several of his ministers, are brought to justice.
“Bogged down for many years, the case was given added impetus last month when U.S.
Magistrate Kimberly Swank in North Carolina ordered the arrest of a Salvadoran army colonel
living in her state who is a suspect in the case. His extradition to Spain is pending U.S. State
Department approval.
“‘Justice has taken so long because there often is a lack of accountability in the countries where
the wars took place,’ Bernabeu said, referring to Central American conflicts in El Salvador,
Nicaragua and Guatemala, among other places. The alleged perpetrators ‘are protected by their
images as recycled businessmen and respectable citizens and by the fear people have of going
after them.’
“Retired army Col. Carlos Rivas, who is now an independent analyst of the ‘culture of impunity’
in El Salvador, said an amnesty law passed the year after a peace accord was signed in 1992 has
impeded investigations and protected politicians and military leaders.
“‘It has allowed many criminals of the right and left wings to mutate into organized crime and
drug trafficking in the postwar’ era, Rivas said.
“On the morning of Nov. 16, 1989, the six priests, a housekeeper and her daughter were rousted
from a university dormitory in San Salvador and gunned down with automatic weapons by
members of an army battalion.
“Bernabeu said there is evidence that Cristiani, his defense minister, the commander of the
leading military academy and several top armed forces commanders planned the killings. Their
objective, she said, was to sow fear among human rights activists in a civil war in which the
government was losing ground.
“But the killings instead galvanized opponents of U.S. military aid then being funneled to the
Cristiani government. After pressure was applied by the U.N., the U.S. and Mexico, the two sides
worked out the so-called Chapultepec Peace Accords of 1992.
“The priests' deaths were among many atrocities in the civil war.
“In 1980, an assassin killed Archbishop Oscar Romero, who has since been canonized by the
Roman Catholic Church. Later that year, four American churchwomen were slain at a military
checkpoint.
“A U.S. investigation carried out by embassy officials in El Salvador after the host government
proved unwilling or unable to look into the deaths found that the women were killed by
Salvadoran security forces.
“Many maintain that the war's brutal aftermath persists in the hyper-violent gangs such as the
Mara Salvatrucha and M-18, both of which have affiliates in Los Angeles. The mayhem of the
gangs, many of whose members are former combatants, has made their country one of the
world's most violent.
“Whether the four suspects arrested Friday night ultimately will be extradited to face trials in
Spain remains an open question. Rivas, for one, is skeptical because the amnesty law is still in
effect. Moreover, too many prominent figures could be compromised in such trials.
“‘Political and economic deals have been made,’ Rivas said. ‘Rather than a blow against
impunity, on the contrary the current situation only favors the interests of those hoping that the
investigation continues as it has, without the political will to see it through.’”
1. Sam Tabory, New El Salvador Attorney General Talks of 'Infiltration', 20 Jan.
2016, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/el-salvador-attorneygeneral-reports-possible-infiltration ..................
“El Salvador's new attorney general said the prosecutors' office may have been infiltrated by
outsiders, underscoring the long road ahead to repairing the damaged institution he inherited.
“On January 19, Attorney General Douglas Meléndez told reporters that he was worried about
criminal penetration of his office.
“‘We have indications that there might be an infiltration of outside persons that want to
influence the institution,’ he said, according to El Diario de Hoy….
“In the same press conference, Melendez also noted additional institutional irregularities,
including poor financial management, significant backlogs of unpaid benefits, and ghost
employees receiving compensation without actually working for the institution.
“The new attorney general announced a laundry list of 60 changes that his office would be
making in an effort to both correct course and tackle high crime rates across the country, which
has become the most violent in the region….
“At his swearing in ceremony, Meléndez made it clear that tackling corruption would be a top
priority. His latest revelations about possible infiltrations may be a sign that he is willing to at
least admit that there is a problem.
“The truest sign of any clean-up efforts in the Attorney General's Office, however, will be how
prosecutors handle several ongoing high-profile corruption investigations, including those of the
former director of the Salvadoran Social Security Institute, Leonel Flores, and Representative
Reynaldo López Cardoza.
“Despite the infiltration concerns, Meléndez has explicitly stated that his office will continue to
pursue the Flores and López Cardoza investigations.
“Meléndez seems to have been elected, at least in part, because of his strong anti-corruption
credentials. In December, it was revealed that several US lawmakers had weighed in on the
attorney general debate in El Salvador, in what was widely seen as a vote of no confidence for
then Attorney General Martínez, urging the Salvadoran congress to elect a new attorney general
committed to tackling issues of corruption and organized crime.
“More broadly, the groundswell of anti-corruption protests and pressures that swept Guatemala
and Honduras in 2015, likely increased the political will in El Salvador to elect a new attorney
general.”
2. Carlos A. Rosales and Ana Leonor Morales, The re-emergence of social
cleansing in El Salvador, 20 Jan. 2016, available at
https://www.opendemocracy.net/democraciaabierta/carlos-rosales-ana-leonormorales/emergence-of-social-cleansing-in-el-salvador ........................
“Twenty year-old Dennis Martínez never knew what hit him, or why. He died instantly after
being shot execution style inside the little shack where he lived in the San Blas coffee plantation
in a semi-rural area, a short drive south of El Salvador´s capital city. Dennis was not a gang
member. Instead, he worked in the farm as a book keeper and served fervently in a nearby
evangelical church….
“According to what investigative journalists have been able to piece together from crime scene
photos, forensic reports and witness accounts,… Dennis was shot in the back of the head after a
heavily armed police commando stormed the farm one late night back in March 2015. The cops
had being tipped off that a small group of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang members had sought
refuge in the farm in recent days fleeing police raids in their own local barrios.
“That night, the Salvadoran police killed 8 young men and women, including Dennis and 16
year-old Sonia Guerrero, who, according to the reporters covering the story, was not a gang
member either. Sonia was there because she was romantically involved with one of the six gang
members the police massacred that night. The forensic report established that the single shot
wound in her mouth shattered her spine as she knelt.
“The account of the carnage—which appeared in the digital newspaper El Faro—underscores
what some observers are alleging is now a common occurrence in El Salvador. Other press
reports and some human rights activists contend that police are taking the law into their own
hands and conducting raids with a take-no-prisoners mentality targeting the youth gangs whose
violent ways and criminal acts have brought the entire country to its knees.
“Violence in El Salvador reached unprecedented levels in 2015. The 481 murders reported in
March of last year—when the San Blas massacre took place—marked a level of bloodshed
unseen since the end of the country´s 12 year civil conflict (1980-1992). But that somber figure
from March was subsequently—and incredibly—surpassed in May (622), in June (677) and in
August (907). According to year-end police statistics, 6,670 people died violently in El Salvador
during the past year, up from 3,942 in 2014.
“This bloodshed has made El Salvador the most violent country in the world. Its current
homicide rate of 103 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, according to recent data from InSight
Crime, has topped even that of neighboring Honduras that had held, until recently, that infamous
title. According to the government, the high number of violent deaths was due to an increase in
clashes between rivals MS-13 and Eighteenth Street (M-18) gangs, and between the country´s
security forces and the gangs. Gang membership in the country is estimated to be around 70
thousand strong.
“As the State confronts youth gangs, police officers have become direct targets in this senseless
cycle of deadly violence. After the government announced an offensive on gangs in early 2015,
gang leaders countered by threatening to target members of the police and the armed forces,
who, by law, play a supporting role in policing duties. In 2015 alone, 59 police officers were
killed, representing a 55% increase from 2014. Sixteen soldiers were also killed in armed attacks
perpetrated by gangs.
“In a further escalation of the violence, the government also loosened up the rules of
engagement for police and the army thus making it easier for them to use their weapons to
‘defend themselves’ against gangs. This unleashed an all-out war in which young police agents
and army troops, and young gang-bangers are killing themselves. In the first seven months of
2015, the country saw over 150 shootouts between police and gangs resulting in the killing of
many suspected gang members.
“Recent media reports and year-end government data also reveals an increase in ‘multiple
homicides,’ which are defined as cases in which there are two or more deadly victims. There
were 94 reported massacres between 2012 and 2014. In 2015 alone, there were 106 multiple
homicides—like the San Blas massacre—which resulted in just over 400 deadly victims.
“Witness testimonies state insistently that in many cases, groups of heavily armed men dressed
in dark, similar to the clothing worn by the police and the army, used sledgehammers and verbal
commands to forcibly enter homes and either take the victims outside to be killed or kill them
inside their dwellings. Government officials have denied they conduct or condone these
practices.
“Anecdotal evidence suggests that citizens support the government´s aggressive campaign to
exterminate gang members. Traditional media outlets seem sympathetic to the daily tally of gang
members being ‘eliminated,’ even though, several incidents reported in the news suggest cases of
indiscriminate violence conducted by police and parallel armed groups. …
“Through apparent coordinated work, in August 2015, the Salvadoran Supreme Court of Justice
declared that street gangs and those linked to them would be considered terrorists. The court´s
ruling clears several unconstitutionality lawsuits that had been brought against the Legislative
Assembly after parliamentarians passed legislation to the same effect in 2006. Soon after, the
country´s Attorney General issued 300 arrest warrants for gang members suspected of ‘terrorist
acts.’
“Through its decision, the high court clears the way for the justice system to act on MS-13 and
rival Eighteen Street and any other gangs attempting to claim powers that belong to the state
and to treat them as terrorists. Their new status as terrorist groups allows the government to
fight gangs in a more efficient manner and with better legal tools.
“The court — that defines terrorism as organized and systematic violence — also gave
legislators six months to adapt the penal code to lengthen prison sentences for those found guilty
of committing terrorist acts to 60 years in prison. Legislators have also rushed to approve laws
that extend prison times for gang members found guilty of killing members of the country’s
security forces.
“In early December 2015, El Salvador´s Human Rights Ombudsman, David Morales, presented
the findings of a study on abuses reportedly committed by state security forces, noting an
increase in police misconduct. The study reveals that between June 2014 and May 2015, this
institution received 2,202 complaints of human rights violations. Of these, 92 percent were
against the PNC, the army, and other state institutions responsible for combatting crime.
“The majority of the complaints related to mistreatment, intimidation, and arbitrary searches
and arrests. However, Morales also noted that some violations were more serious including,
‘cases of arbitrary deaths, situations that could verge on torture, and…possible executions at the
scene of armed confrontations between police and [alleged] criminals.’
“Morales, had also stated in 2014 that his Office’s investigators had identified at least ten
homicides cases that bore all the hallmarks of death squad killings. In each case, the victims
were gang members and the perpetrators were dressed in black clothing and carried assault
rifles.
“Since 2014, Salvadoran human rights activists have been denouncing that death squads with
possible connections with the police have been waging a campaign of ‘social cleansing’ against
gangs and suspected gangs members. These allegations suggest that the security forces may be
reviving an ill-conceived practice from the country’s past for dealing with political turmoil.
“This Central American nation has a long and bitter history related to death squad practices.
During El Salvador twelve-year internal armed conflict (1980-1992), the country developed a
notorious reputation for extra-judicial killings, torture, disappearances, and paramilitary death
squads that killed tens of thousands of people.
“Following the war, a new generation of death squads emerged targeting gangs, politicians,
human rights defenders and judicial officials. The most famous of these death squads was the
Sombra Negra, or Black Shadow, which was active in the early to mid-1990s but that has
resurfaced periodically over the last decade. The Salvadoran media reported in 2014 on Sombra
Negra graffiti appearing in several communities as well as on the opening of a Sombra Negra
anti-gang web page (Escuadrón Alpha SN, or Black Shadow Alpha Squadron) and a Facebook
account with over 14 thousand followers.
“Similarly, a Facebook account for Héroe Azul El Salvador, or Blue Hero El Salvador (in
reference to the PNC´s blue uniforms), apparently set up by police and/or police sympathizers
constantly updates and celebrates the “elimination” of gang members. The site, which boasts
185 thousand followers, also posts gruesome pictures of the dead bodies of alleged gang
members clearly showing gun shots to head or to the back.
“The state’s absolute incompetence in dealing with the criminal phenomena in El Salvador has
forced the government to resort to extra-legal measures to confront the severe citizen security
challenges it faces. In a desperate attempt to show results to a frustrated populace, there is
strong, well-documented evidence, that state and other social actors are waging social cleansing
campaigns and committing gross human rights violations that are taking the lives of innocent
young men and women.
“In addition to the rising violence, the local media has reported that the army has been forced to
dismiss an increasing number of personnel for suspected gang affiliation. This seems to be
happening given the army’s increasing role in policing tasks. But this is also a process that has
already taken a toll among the rank and file of the police which has undergone periodic purges
of suspected gang members that had infiltrated the institution.
“A recent study by examines the recent evolution of gangs in El Salvador. The study delves into
the question of whether or not the country’s gangs have transformed into more complex
organizations capable of articulating a political voice, maintaining an international reach, and
effectively confronting the state.
“While the report concludes that following the crumbling of the truce the gangs have not
undergone a process of ‘collective maturation’ into more sophisticated actors, the fact remains
that these criminal enterprises have shown enormous resilience and an immense ability to exert
pressure on the state and inflict alarming levels of violence on society.
“The current situation in El Salvador (and other Central American countries) simply cannot
continue unabated. More and better efforts must be undertaken in order to dramatically change
the present conditions. Similarly, more resources need to be made available to conceive and
implement public policies that work and that include robust violence prevention and law
enforcement components.”
#. Hector Silva Avalos, Did El Salvador’s Attorney General Protect ‘Chepe
Diablo’?, 24 Dec. 2015, available at
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2015/12/28/40-pct-increase-in-el-salvadorgang-members-charged-with-crimes/ .....
“In this article, the role of El Salvador Attorney General Luis Martinez in obstructing
investigations into the Texis Cartel, and its supposed leader ‘Chepe Diablo,’ come under
scrutiny at a time when Martinez is being considered for a second term as the country's head
prosecutor.
“Salvadoran Attorney General Luis Martinez, whose reelection was discussed by El Salvador's
Legislative Assembly on December 3, made changes to the prosecution team assigned to cases
against the Texis Cartel. He also told his subordinates not to ask a judge for documents in which
the Treasury Ministry established the participation of Jose Adan Salazar Umaña, Wilfredo
Guerre Umaña, Juan Umaña Samayoa (mayor of Metpan) and the businesses Hotesa S.A. of
C.V. and Gumarsal S.A. of C.V., in money laundering and illicit enrichment.
“El Salvador's Treasury Ministry had concluded that the three businessmen and the two
consortiums aligned with the Texis Cartel -- a drug trafficking group based in the northeast of
the country -- had committed at least two crimes between 2010 and 2011: money
laundering and illicit enrichment.
“The Criminal Investigations Unit of the General Tax Directorate of the Treasury Ministry
determined these contributors had ‘falsified accounting records, fabricated operations ...
established unaccountable and undeclared asset increases in their bank accounts,’ confirmed the
government investigators on the case and a lawyer familiar with the initial accusation against
Salazar Umaña and the suspected Texis Cartel members. A third source from the Treasury
Ministry confirmed the findings.
“The evidence of these crimes were documented in two financial and accounting audits the
Treasury Ministry carried out on Hotesa and Gumarsal between 2010 and 2011. According to a
summary of these reports, obtained by Factum, ‘there was sufficient evidence to justify opening
an investigation, due to operational inconsistencies and lack of apparent economic reason...’
“The Treasury Ministry carried out these audits as part of a tax evasion case against Salazar
Umaña, Juan Umaña Samayoa, and the two companies in San Salvador's Ninth Peace Court.
With these findings, as Factum previously reported, the Attorney General's Financial
Investigation Unit opened the record labeled 22-UIF-2014.
“In July 2014, the Organized Crime Special Unit seized all formal accounting records of the
three people and the two businesses. Prosecutors also began working with the Financial System
Superintendent, the National Police's (PNC) Financial Crimes and Forfeitures Division, and
Customs and Immigration, in order to assign experts to aid prosecutors in establishing, in court,
‘the type of laundering used by those investigated to legitimize identified capital of an unknown
origin.’ Sources from the three previously mentioned institutes confirmed the prosecutors'
requests.
“What was needed, according to the investigators who participated in the tax evasion case and
the initial money laundering inquires, was to exhaustively follow the suspects' money and assets
‘through public sources, private records, property, companies, vehicles, taxes, financial
institutions and brokerages...’
“But the Treasury Ministry is not the Attorney General, who is constitutionally responsible for
prosecuting and imprisoning criminals. In this case the Treasury did its work to prove Jose Adan
Salazar Umaña had laundered money and enriched himself through illegal means. Nevertheless,
the Attorney General under Luis Martinez acted as a defender of ‘Chepe Diablo,’ as the
businessman had come to be known. In order to protect him, Martinez asked his prosecutors to
suspend a court process in which all the evidence found by the Treasury Ministry would have
been added to the case.
“The Texis Cartel is one of the two criminal groups in El Salvador that traffics drugs, launders
money and receives political protection from important business people, according to the United
Nation's Office on Drugs and Crime.
“Investigative journalists determined that Jose Adan Salazar Umaña, alias ‘Chepe Diablo,’ and
Juan Umaña Samayoa -- the mayor of Metapan -- are the leaders of this organization. United
States President Barack Obama's administration has labeled Chepe Diablo as an international
drug trafficking capo.
“In other words, under Luis Martinez the Attorney General's Office worked so that Salvadoran
justice could push forward money laundering accusations against the only man in El
Salvador identified by the White House as an international drug trafficker.
“Between April and May of 2015 the financial investigations unit asked San Salvador's Second
Judge of the Peace to carry out a ‘court ordered test,’ a forensic audit or expert financial
account. In other words, a judicial act through which prosecutors could formally add the
Treasury Ministry's findings to the case of tax evasion and money laundering.
“The prosecutors had already requested the Eighth Peace Judge to seize all accounting and
financial information of the suspected Texis Cartel members, which at the moment was held by
the Ninth Peace Judge, where the tax evasion trial was held. In the tax evasion trial, the
defendants acknowledged the crime and paid fines of up to a million dollars to the Treasury, at
which point the accusation was finished and all the accounting and expert documents were to be
returned.
“To avoid being left without the definitive proof of money laundering already uncovered by the
Treasury Ministry, the prosecutors asked for another seizure. Everything looked set for
Salvadoran justice's first big money laundering case against a designated international drug
trafficker.
“‘We were ready. We'd studied and defined all the evidence and knew how to prove the money
laundering,’ one of the experts told Factum. The expert had been called to testify and agreed to
speak anonymously, so as not to put other investigations at risk.
“Everything looked ready, but was not. That's when the order from above came.
“Two of the investigators in the money laundering case confirmed that last June the head of the
financial investigations unit, Prosecutor Tovias Menjivar, gave the order to cancel the expert
financial accounting. The reasoning: that the court building in San Salvador didn't have enough
‘physical space’ to contain the audit. (Factum confirmed that in other big cases, audits such as
this have been carried out in hearing halls at the central court, such as in the cases against CelEnel, OBC or the Perrones.)
“By August 24, 2015, Tovias Menjivar had already signed an internal order to close the money
laundering case. Lastly, the lawyer Alessia Esteffi Herrera Menjivar, who was assigned by
Attorney General Martinez to ask the court to return all the seized documents to the Texis Cartel.
In other words, the auxiliary prosecutor assigned by the Attorney General asked the judge to
return to the suspects the proof that, according to the Treasury Ministry, implicated them in the
crimes of money laundering and illicit enrichment.
“Lawyer Bertha Deleon, the plaintiff in the corruption case against former President Francisco
Flores, accused Attorney General Martinez of hiding, seizing and silencing evidence in court
that had the potential to incriminate the defendants.
“The US Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has called Jose
Salazar Umaña a regional head of drug trafficking. OFAC came to this conclusion by reviewing,
among other things, documents similar to those studied by Salvadoran prosecutors: account
records, audits, financial movements and commercial relations. A US federal agent, well known
in El Salvador, said Chepe Diablo had ‘a lot of money which he couldn't explain,’ the same as
what Salvadoran Treasury Ministry investigators had established in their report.
“When he had just arrived at his post and still had support from the US Embassy in San
Salvador, Luis Martinez said in public and private that he would make prosecution of the Texis
Cartel one of his priorities.
“However, by August 2015 the official was satisfied with the tax evasion case and dismissed in a
conversation continuing the money laundering investigation, according to a journalist at La
Prensa Grafica. In that conversation, Martinez lead the journalist to believe there was no proof
against Texis Cartel members. This of course is a lie. The Treasury Ministry had indications and
evidence that prosecutors were about to bring forward a money laundering court case. But the
Attorney General, who was their boss, kept this from happening….
“In reports made leading up to the case, Treasury Ministry experts said: ‘there was sufficient
evidence to justify opening an investigation, due to operational inconsistencies and lack of
apparent economic reason..." and: "(The suspects) had falsified accounting records, fabricated
operations ... established unaccountable and undeclared asset increases in their bank accounts.’
“Factum tried to get the Attorney General's Office's official version of what happened, but as of
publication they have not responded.
“On December 3, Luis Martinez' first term as Attorney General expired. According to many of
their respective members, political parties Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN)
and Gran Alianza por la Unidad Nacional (GANA) consider Martinez an excellent option to
continue on as Attorney General. The Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) is divided on the
prospect.”
[*This article was originally published by Factum and was translated, edited for clarity, and
reprinted with permission. See the Spanish original here.]
#. Michael Lohmuller, El Salvador security forces behind 90% of reported abuses:
Official, 10 Dec. 2015, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/newsbriefs/reported-abuses-by-el-salvador-security-forces-up-official .....
“El Salvador's human rights ombudsman has presented findings on abuses reportedly committed
by state security forces, noting an increase in police misconduct while at the same time
appearing to downplay their actions.
“On December 9, David Morales, who heads El Salvador's Attorney General's Office for the
Defense of Human Rights (PDDH), announced that between June 2014 and May 2015 the
PDDH received 2,202 complaints of human rights violations. Of these, 92 percent were against
the National Civil Police (PNC), the army, and other state institutions responsible for combating
crime, reported EFE. Those against the PNC alone represented 63 percent of all complaints,
with the army accounting for 11 percent.
“The majority of complaints pertained to mistreatment, intimidation, and arbitrary searches and
arrests. However, Morales noted some violations were much more severe.
“‘We have had cases of arbitrary deaths, situations that could verge on torture, and we are
investigating possible executions at the scenes of armed confrontations between police and
supposed criminals,’ noted Morales. The ombudsman added that seven cases are under
consideration as potentially involving extrajudicial killings.
“Morales petitioned the Salvadoran government to have a ‘firm hand’ in exercising internal
control and discipline over security forces, and called on the attorney general to take action
against abuses.
“Nonetheless, Morales did not reject the government's hardening anti-gang actions, reasoning
that ‘crime has escalated the violence,’ which has increased both the number of homicides and
attacks against security forces….
“Perhaps just as concerning as the increase in reported human rights violations by security
forces is what could be interpreted as the tacit acceptance of these abuses by the country's
ombudsman. Morales' statement that the government's response to gang violence must be ‘more
forceful’ points to a culture of impunity and the ‘ends justify the means’ mentality within the
police ranks.
“This mentality has been buttressed by increasingly tough anti-gang rhetoric on the part of highranking police officials. Earlier this year, the director of the PNC urged his officers to use their
weapons against criminals with ‘complete confidence.’ Police head of internal affairs Ricardo
Salvador Martinez even suggested if officers killed more gang members in ‘legitimate selfdefense,’ it might help pacify the country.
“The apparent lack of government will to investigate human rights abuses is especially
concerning given recent reports of police officers, as well as death squads dressed in police
uniforms, massacring suspected criminals.
“While Morales is right to call attention to police abuses and lack of official oversight, he also
appears to offer a degree of justification for these actions. Serving as an apologist for police
overreach, however, may only serve to further encourage the heavy-handed and abusive actions
he simultaneously condemns.”
#. Sam Tabory, Washington eyes El Salvador Attorney General race, 8 Dec 2015,
available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/washington-eyes-elsalvador-attorney-general-race ...
“Six members of the US House of Representatives have sent a letter to legislators in El
Salvador urging them to elect a new Attorney General, highlighting the issue of US influence
over local efforts to tackle corruption and impunity in Central America….
“In the text of the letter, the US Representatives make reference to an aid package being
considered for Central America's Northern Triangle--including El Salvador--and urge El
Salvador's Congress to elect a ‘new attorney general focused on defeating corruption and
organized crime,’ reported La Prensa Grafica. …
“By urging for the election of a ‘new attorney general,’ the US Congressional letter is basically
a vote of no-confidence for Luis Martinez.
“The political wrangling surrounding the attorney general post has also arguably been
influenced by the wave of anti-corruption protests seen in Guatemala and elsewhere in Central
America earlier this year. With the heightened sensitivity to concerns of corruption and impunity
comes significant political pressure to make sure that El Salvador's Congress makes the right
choice regarding its top law enforcement officer.
“Notably, this past year Martinez has faced allegations of corruption. In particular, his office's
handling of a money laundering and tax evasion case against the presumed leader of the Texis
Cartel, Jose Adan Salazar Umaña, alias ‘Chepe Diablo,’ has drawn public scrutiny.
“Journalist Hector Silva Avalos told InSight Crime that the ‘Washington factor’ is likely not
helping Martinez's prospects for re-election, saying that a letter from six US representatives is a
big deal in the El Salvador political landscape. However, Silva Avalos noted that the possibility
of Martinez being re-elected should not be ruled out.”
3. Mimi Yagoub, El Salvador Judges Accused of Stealing Seized Cash, 26
November 2015, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/el-salvadorjudges-accused-of-stealing-seized-cash ..............................
“The arrest of 12 judicial officials, accused of pilfering hundreds of thousands of dollars from
criminal proceedings, highlights the urgent need to clean up El Salvador's justice system.
“El Salvador's Attorney General's Office has arrested 12 members of a criminal network that
allegedly embezzled $300,000 via a scheme in which judicial officials absolved murderers, drug
traffickers, and extortionists, reported El Mundo.
“According to investigators, several defendants being prosecuted for money laundering were
absolved by corrupt judges; afterwards, the defendants were expected to walk away and not
demand that the confiscated cash be returned. In other cases, judges would authorize returning
the seized cash -- which in one case involved $150,000 -- only to distribute the money among
other corrupt officials involved in the scheme.
“The network was made up of three judges -- only one of whom has been suspended -- who were
already under investigation for bribery; two former prosecutors for El Salvador's Financial
Investigation Unit (UIF), and a number of lawyers….
“Cases such as these highlight just how dysfunctional El Salvador's judicial sector is, both in
terms of corruption, and the ability of authorities to catch corrupt officials. Bribery scandals
involving high-level judges are not uncommon: in 2012, 80 percent of the country's judges were
reportedly under investigation.
“However, the ability of El Salvador's judicial bodies to actually build successful cases against
corrupt officials is extremely limited. Impunity in the country is estimated to be at 90 percent.
Notably, this latest case apparently only materialized as the result of testimony from a single
protected witness.
“Inefficiency in the justice system has contributed to Salvadoran security forces all too often
taking justice into their own hands. This year, the police force has upped its aggressive tactics and
reportedly formed death squads against the country's notorious street gangs, prompting calls that
the police now need reigning in.
“Lack of police trust in the courts is contributing to El Salvador's overall chaos, but the country
may not have to look very far to find an example of how to best tackle judicial reform. Recent
developments in Guatemala suggest that training up prosecutors in building cases around technical
evidence, such as phone recordings and e-mails, can have a huge impact. Many cases in El
Salvador depend heavily on witness testimony, meaning if no one is caught in the act and if there
are no informants willing to collaborate, the investigation goes nowhere.
“Guatemala was able to train up its prosecutors in part due to UN-backed International
Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), ultimately resulting in the resignation and
arrest of former President Otto Perez Molina on corruption charges in September 2015. But with
El Salvador recently rejecting the possibility of establishing a similar institution, the country may
well remain over-dependent on less easily attainable testimonial evidence.”
4. Rafael Castillo, El Salvador Journalists Fear for Their Lives After Accusing
Police of a Massacre, 25 August 2015, available at
https://news.vice.com/article/el-salvador-journalists-fear-for-their-lives-after-accusingpolice-of-a-massacre ....................
“Not long after a trio of investigative reporters in El Salvador published an explosive
investigation about the killing of seven alleged gang members and a bystander by police at a
coffee farm, the journalists started receiving death threats.
“The official police account went as follows: Officers received intelligence that members of the
Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang had taken over the San Blas farm on the outskirts of the capital
San Salvador, and sent an elite group to investigate, which was then attacked. ‘The subjects shot
with their firearms to warn of police presence,’ the National Civil Police said in a press
statement. Officers claimed they fired back in defense, killing eight people.
“But Roberto Valencia, Oscar Martinez, and Daniel Valencia Cervantes, who write for the
respected online news site El Faro, challenged the official version, saying what really took
place on the early morning of March 26 was an extrajudicial massacre….
“El Faro's investigation, published on July 22, reconstructed the incident based on the testimony
of four survivors alongside other witnesses, photographs from police officers' private social
media accounts, autopsy and forensic reports, and the account by the prosecutor's office. Put
together, the evidence shows the official version is false, the news site said. ‘Concepts such as
'massacre,' 'summary executions,' and 'editing' would better define the act of the Salvadoran
state on March 26,’ El Faro declared.
“According to El Faro's report, upon arriving at the farm, officers found one man outside the
buildings and opened fire as he began to run. Another three suspects remained in a crumbling
warehouse. Police officers surrounded the building and threw a non-lethal stunt grenade inside.
When gang members tried to flee, the officers gunned them down. Four others were then found
and executed inside a house next to the warehouse. One of them was Dennis Martinez, a 17year-old farm worker whose bedroom was in the building.
“After hearing the gunshots from inside his room, he made a terrified phone call to his uncle, the
farm manager, asking what to do. ‘If it´s the police, don't be afraid, they will respect you,’ said
his uncle, according to El Faro's interview with the slain teen's mother Consuelo. The uncle
heard the door open and the police demanding to know this nephew's identity before the call was
cut off.
“Consuelo, sitting only about 15 meters away outside the shack near where the coffee beans
were dried, heard her son asking for a chance to speak before hearing gunshots. She had
explained to officers surrounding her that her son was the only person upstairs in the building;
one of them yelled ‘Stop shooting!’ she told El Faro. ‘But my Dennis was already dead.’
“'When they didn't encounter that much resistance, they decided to kill'
“Oscar Martinez, one of the co-authors of El Faro's investigation, told VICE News
that according to a witness, two victims ‘begged for their lives.’ The police officers ‘were
prepared for a clash,’ he said. ‘When they didn't encounter that much resistance, they decided to
kill some of the people who were there.’
“The story also includes social media posts of the massacre that appear to show the crime scene
was tampered with to support the police version of events. A photograph of one victim shows him
with a gun nearby, purportedly proving that the gang members were armed. But several photos
show the gun in different positions.
“Continuous turf wars and shootouts between police and gang members have made it an
intensely violent year in El Salvador, with the murder toll in June reaching 667, the highest since
the end of the civil war in 1992. Since the breakdown last year of a truce between MS-13 and
Barrio 18, the country's other powerful street gang, the murder rate has shot up by more than 50
percent. Earlier this month, in this Central American country of just over 6.3 million people, 125
people were murdered over the course of three days, according to the National Police. Dozens of
police officers have been killed this year.
‘Police colleagues of officers whom Maras have killed take justice in their own hands,’ El Faro
journalist Roberto Valencia told VICE News.
“Since El Faro published its report, the reporters say they have been threatened on social
media, had their homes spied on by unidentified men, and that their neighbors were asked to
identify the precise location of their residences, causing deep anxiety in the newsroom. Death
threats have been made on social media and El Faro's website. Martinez said an informant
alerted the site's editors to a planned attack on the three journalists on August 10. The reporters
checked out the tip with sources in El Salvador's security ministry and found it to be credible,
though the attack did not happen.
“‘What we know [is the threats] come from different groups. At least one person is linked to the
police,’ said Martinez. According to him, some people in El Salvador believe the only solution to
the country's gang problem is ‘to eliminate controls and kill anyone who they think they should
kill, mainly gang members.’
“'People who took part in the massacre operation in San Blas are not worried about an internal
police investigation.'
“El Faro and the journalists involved have filed a complaint about the harassment with El
Salvador's Attorney General's Office. Two prosecutors have been assigned to the case, but the
prosecutor's office declined to disclose any further information to VICE News, saying that
the investigations are confidential.
“Earlier this month, the National Police director stood by the official police version of events,
and said that officers involved in the shootout were still active in the police force. VICE News
tried to speak with representatives about a possible internal investigation by the National Police
and the Attorney General's Office, but they weren't immediately available for an interview.
“The Human Rights Ombudsman's Office in El Salvador opened an investigation after El Faro
published its investigation. A report on the issue will be released in the coming weeks.
“‘What I think is that people who took part in the massacre operation in San Blas are not
worried about an internal police investigation,’ said Martinez. ‘I don't believe that the National
Police wants to attack us, but people inside the police want to stop the work we do.’”
5. Elijah Stevens, Death Squads in El Salvador Kill, Face No Investigation:
Report, 10 November 2014, available at http://www.insightcrime.org/newsbriefs/death-squads-in-el-salvador-kill-face-no-investigation-report .....
“A media investigation suggests that death squads, dressed as security forces, killed over a
dozen people, and were not investigated by authorities.
“The recent El Diario de Hoy investigation into 14 unresolved deaths in El Salvador suggests that
these death squads may be systemically carrying out extrajudicial killings in areas controlled by
the Mara Salvatrucha (MS13), one of two powerful gangs operating in El Salvador.
“The victims range from suspected gang members -- or ‘sympathizers,’ as they are referred to in
the story -- to others who do not appear to have any gang affiliation.
“In one such case, a death squad arrived at a house in the community of El Cedro, wearing
police uniforms, identifying themselves as police and saying they were looking for weapons. The
death squad then shot and killed one man after telling him they simply wanted to ask him some
questions; they then followed that by killing two sisters in a separate house, the investigation
alleges.
“Salvadoran authorities have almost entirely ignored these cases, El Diario de Hoy said.
Families of the victims say that neither the police, the Attorney General's Office or Human
Rights Ombudsman's Office have investigated the deaths.
“It is difficult to dispute that death squads are now contributing mightily to historic homicide levels
across El Salvador. This is the second such in-depth report on their operations. The first, by El
Faro, chronicled a more generalized sensation and call for police to participate in these militias.
(El Faro also chronicled a series of extrajudicial executions by police who allegedly staged the crime
scene to look like a firefight with alleged gang members.)
“Still, no big case has resulted yet in police (or military) getting investigated or prosecuted for
extrajudicial executions. A surge of gang killings by vigilante groups in 2014 sparked speculation
about the role of death squads in extrajudicial killings, and although the Police
Director Mauricio Ramirez Landaverde placed blame on the gangs themselves, the participation
of police was not ruled out.
“Landaverde has taken a similar stance on subsequent extrajudicial killings of suspected gang
members, dismissing the involvement of police in death squads, while remaining open to the
possibility that there are some death squads that are operational. But the lack of follow-up
investigations by internal or independent bodies has made it difficult to pinpoint the sources of
such violence.
“Meanwhile, the ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ policy of El Salvador’s police has heightened
the climate of chaotic violence and extrajudicial killings. There were at least 676 homicides in
October, more than double the level the year previous.”
6. Daniel Alarcon, The Executioners of El Salvador, 4 August 2015, available at
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-executioners-of-el-salvador
.....................................
“Earlier this year, the International Business Times ran this bewildering headline: ‘El
Salvador to Become Deadliest Peace-Time Country in the World.’ It’s an odd turn of
phrase; something about it doesn’t quite scan. Perhaps, given the context of life in El
Salvador, it’s best to reëxamine what we mean when we say ‘peacetime.’ Consider this:
since the collapse, early last year, of the truce between local gangs and the government,
the murder rate has risen by a staggering fifty-two per cent. Or this: El Salvador, with a
population of a little over 6.3 million, registered more than six hundred murders in May, the
most since the end of the civil war. (For comparison: despite its reputation for violence,
Chicago, with a little under half the population of El Salvador, had forty-eight murders
that same month.) Or this: more than thirty-five police officers have been killed so far in
2015. Everyone has been touched, directly or indirectly, by the chaos, and Salvadorans
of every social class have learned to cope with the constant sense of insecurity. One
friend likened returning home from abroad to being splashed with boiling water—and he
wasn’t referring to the heat. If this is peacetime, one shudders to think what a war would
look like.
“I was in San Salvador two weeks ago, when El Faro, a local online newspaper, published
an explosive investigation into a killing at a farm just a few hours from the capital. The
article was entitled ‘Police Massacre in San Blas,’ and it re-creates, through eyewitness
testimony, the examination of forensic and ballistic reports, and private social-media
postings by police who were present, the events of March 26th of this year, when eight
alleged members of the gang Mara Salvatrucha were killed at a coffee plantation. The
official story, reported at the time, told of a police raid and a subsequent shootout;
Roberto Valencia, Daniel Valencia Caravantes, and Óscar Martínez, reporting for El
Faro, uncovered something very different, a series of events that sounds more like an
extrajudicial police killing. Most but not all of the dead were gang members, and some
appeared to have been executed. The official story of an extended gun battle has also
been called into question by El Faro’s reporters. One of the victims, Dennis, was just
twenty years old, and had worked at the farm for six years as an ‘escribiente.’ Basically,
he lived onsite and kept track of the hours that all the employees worked. He was, by all
accounts (except those of police), a quiet, church-going young man, not a gang member.
Months before the killing, a local Mara Salvatrucha clique forced its way onto the
compound. Its members occasionally slept at the house or partied there, and there was
little the employees of the farm could do about it. Men like these don’t ask permission. A
few weeks before he was killed by police, Dennis told his pastor about the uncomfortable
situation. He said he was afraid. Moments before he died, Dennis was on the phone with
his mother, Consuelo. She told El Faro’s reporters that she heard her son begging for his
life. She lived close enough to hear the shots that killed him.
“I met with one of the authors of the story, Óscar Martínez, the night before it went live
on the Web site. Óscar is best known in the United States for ‘The Beast,’ his 2013
chronicle of life on the harrowing migrant trail through Mexico. He’s always a bit manic,
but that night, Óscar seemed unusually jittery, even anxious. He and his co-authors were
all preparing to leave the country the following morning, for their own safety. This
extraordinary measure says a lot about the kind of backlash that El Faro was expecting.
As the violence has increased, the debate about what exactly should be done about it has
become even more poisonous. Thus far, President Salvador Sánchez Cerén’s populist
response has been to disown the truce that held for the better part of two years, and
instead confront the gangs directly. No politician wants to be seen as soft on the gangs,
which are rightly seen as a scourge. The public, for the most part, supports this strategy.
For El Faro to criticize the police is to risk being seen as defenders of the gangs that
everyone despises. Óscar had already received death threats for an earlier story about
police misconduct….
“These days, El Salvador, he argued, is in the grip of something terrible, something
frightening and lawless, and it’s natural for people to be outraged. But allowing police to
kill with impunity is far too dangerous a proposition in a country with El Salvador’s
history of state violence.
“Last week, the Salvadoran defense minister, David Munguía Payés, told the press that
there were somewhere between five and six hundred thousand people involved with gangs.
Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 are the two most powerful organizations, but there are
many others. If that figure is to be believed, that’s about ten per cent of the country’s
population dedicated to drug dealing, extortion, and mayhem—so what do you do? Again
and again, I heard the same solution being offered, sometimes blithely, sometimes
through jaws clenched in rage: Kill them all. Kill their girlfriends and their families Kill
their children. One man apologized as he proposed this solution—he found it unseemly to
be advocating genocide—but most did not. One young woman, soft-spoken, exceedingly
polite, detailed her life in a gang-ridden neighborhood on the outskirts of the capital. It
was one terrifying encounter after another, each delivering the same dispiriting lesson:
she was helpless in the face of the gangs and their malevolent power. She had done
everything she could to avoid them, and still they found ways to control her life. Her
father was forced to pay extortion money to one of the gangs—she wouldn’t say which
one. By the end of our conversation, she was almost weeping with fury…
“It’s easy to empathize with that anger. I heard her stories and others like them, and I
confess that I began to feel it, too. But can you create policy from rage? Every time I
heard this horrifying solution discussed, I felt despondent. Leaving aside the ethics, mass
murder like that is not plausible, neither politically nor practically. I found myself
making this argument again and again, and afterward would replay the conversation and
my role in it, and feel even more depressed. The very fact that a proposed genocide has to
be discussed in terms of its practicality, and not its immorality, tells you a great deal
about the gravity of the situation in El Salvador.
“The night before he left the country, Óscar told me that he understood the anger, and he
knew that he and his co-authors would be attacked for his investigation. ‘I only hope,’ he
said, ‘that the readers who applaud the fact that the police are now judge, jury, and
executioner don’t suffer one day at the hands of the police they’ve empowered.’”
7. Roberto Lavato, El Salvador’s Gang Violence: The Continuation of Civil War
by Other Means: Poverty, the politics of impunity and the long history of USfunded oppression are creating a new wave of refugees, 8 June 2015, available at
http://www.thenation.com/article/el-salvadors-gang-violence-continuation-civil-warother-means/ ………….
“‘The great evil here in El Salvador is impunity,’ said Benjamin Cuellar, researcher and
former director of the Human Rights Institute of Central American University
(IDHUCA), whose office is located not far from the flower-filled, grassy lawn on campus
where six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter were murdered by soldiers
of the infamous Atlacatl rapid-response battalion in 1989 in what is, along with the
Romero assassination, one of the most high-profile—and unresolved—crimes in recent
Salvadoran history (the battalion had been trained by US Special Forces at the School of
the Americas in Fort Bragg, North Carolina).
“‘Impunity is what’s causing the gangs to perpetuate many of the same problems and
violations of rights that we saw during the war: summary executions, massacres,
tortures, forced disappearances, mass migration inside the country, and the mass
migration of people fleeing to the United States.’
“Cuellar and lawyers from IDHUCA are pursuing cases against those they consider to
be the intellectual authors of the 1989 UCA murders. ‘We pursued a case against
members of the military and Alfredo Cristiani, who was [ARENA] president when the
murders took place. The judge hearing the case said that they did not qualify for the
amnesty law because it falls under an exception. What happened? [FMLN President]
Funes said he wasn’t going to revoke amnesty. If you have a legal system that can’t
pursue justice in these cases, how do you expect it to pursue smaller cases [involving
gangs]?’
“When asked about the current deployment of the army and rapid-response units to fight
gang violence, Cuellar refers to the 1992 peace accords, which among other things
called for, in his words, ‘demilitarizing public security; reducing the size of the military;
and the dismantling of the Belloso, Atlacatl, Bracamonte, and Atonal rapid-response
battalions.’ The military was supposed to be used for public security, he said, ‘only in
exceptional situations.’ But, he added, ‘this exceptional situation has lasted 22 years.’
“While laying most of the blame for the wartime violence on ARENA and other governing
parties, Cuellar does not hesitate to give the former guerrillas their share of blame for
the current crisis. ‘The FMLN is showing its hypocrisy,’ he said, ‘presenting as a
salvation what they used to say was the problem. They’re not going to defeat gangs with
the military, just as they were not defeated militarily. The ex-guerrillas are not betting on
the ideas with which they won the peace. Instead, they appear to be betting on the ideas
of those who were their enemies.’ …
“‘From the beginning,’ Mijango said, ‘the United States didn’t support the truce because
it interferes with their very military approach to the gangs. They asked to participate in
the dialogue, but they wanted the FBI to participate. We told them that would only
complicate things, so they didn’t participate.’
“Standing outside the crowd in front of the stage, Francisco and David, two members of
the Mara Salvatrucha, were not as worried about the FBI as they were about the blueuniformed National Civil Police, who had descended on the nursery scene clutching their
M-16s.
“‘I have to watch out for them as much or more than I do 18th Street,’ said David, a
baby-faced 17-year-old who is participating in the new nursery project and the
accompanying gardening project that allows them to grow and sell tomatoes. ‘They’ve
picked me up, beat me, and left me in 18th Street territory to be killed,’ he said. David’s
story reminded me of the Los Angeles Police Department, which, by ending gang truces
and handing over gang members to US immigration authorities who then deported them,
sparked the gang problem in EL Salvador in the first place. ‘I have a wife and a 4-monthold son, and I’m trying to get straight so I can support them. Working in the garden
makes me feel good.’ …
“On returning to El Salvador, Torres found himself trapped between the 18th Street gang
and the National Civil Police. El Salvador turned his pizza dreams into a nightmare. ‘As
soon as I got back, the police would harass me because of my tattoos,’ says Torres as he
pulls up his shirt to show the names of his daughter and grandmother on his arm and
chest. ‘The police threaten me, beat me, tell me I’m a no-good gangster who better watch
out all the time. But I was never involved in gangs.’
“When I met them in late May, Torres and his family were still in shock because of the
shooting death of their neighbor, who lived just across the cobblestone street from them.
‘He was shot 17 times by the police, and La Prensa newspaper reported that he was a
marrero, which is a total lie,’ exclaimed Torres. ‘He was an evangelical minister.’
Anxious to say something during my interview with his son, José Antonio Torres, a
former member of the Belloso battalion rapid-response unit, which was dismantled after
the peace accords, leaps up and chimes in angrily. ‘They will escalate the violence, hurt
and kill even more people, because there’s been no accountability,’ he says. The younger
Torres says nothing in response.
“Like many deported from the United States, Torres brought back skills that might be
economically useful, which for him meant pizza. He was promised training by the
government to re-integrate into his homeland; despite getting nothing, he started a
business that went very well, selling pizzas to schools in and around El Cimarron. …
“‘ I was again doing really well,’ he tells me, ‘but that ended when the Mara Salvatrucha
came to me in San Vicente and told me I would have to start paying $200-$300 rent per
month. I packed up and came back home.’
“Since then, Torres’s pizza oven and equipment have largely remained fallow, except for
the pizzas he makes for his uncle in exchange for the $21 in milk he gets for his baby
daughter every two weeks, his only source of income.
“‘I spend almost all of my time here in the house,’ says Torres. ‘I feel trapped, unable to
exercise my officio [occupation], with nothing to do because of the gangs and the police.’
“Asked if he would brave the Zetas and migrate again to the north, as thousands of
Salvadorans—including unaccompanied children—facing similar situations continue to
do, Torres responds philosophically.
“‘I don’t know,’ he says. ‘But, at this point, what do I have to lose? How big is the risk?
Is dealing with the Zetas a bigger risk than living here in my hometown? Maybe not.
We’ll see.’”
8. Suchit Chavez and Jessica Avalos, The Northern Triangle: The Countries That
Don't Cry for Their Dead,23 April 2014, available at
http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/the-northern-triangle-the-countries-thatdont-cry-for-their-dead ...........................................
“In the past three years, 48,947 people were murdered in the Northern Triangle, the most
violent region of the world, which is home to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. In
those three years, these countries achieved convictions in 2,295 cases, representing an
impunity rate of 95 percent for homicides. This is the reality for thousands of victims in
the region: states that neither guarantee justice nor programs that provide special
attention to the victims of this excessive violence….
“During 2013, the Northern Triangle was again the most violent region in the world.
Again. The United Nations had already given it this label a year earlier, when the
homicide rate, which serves as an indicator of violence levels, rose above 50 deaths per
100,000 inhabitants….
“In just 2013, there were 15,328 homicides in the Northern Triangle. When the
perspective is widened to include the years 2011 through 2013, the figures paint a picture
of a Central American cemetery: 48,947 tombs in those three years. Due to the
multiplicity of homicides, the Northern Triangle has stopped naming its victims, and now
just counts and accumulates them.
“Each country, to a greater or lesser extent, has contributed to this quota….
“In total, 9,464 people were murdered in El Salvador between 2011 and 2013, a time
period that encompasses the gang truce initiated in March 2012, the pact that President
Mauricio Funes has refused to recognize as his own strategy. The truce, while
considerably decreasing the number of homicides in El Salvador, has not managed to halt
the violence. What's more, murders have again begun to rise, despite the agreement,
since July 2013. This fact led Rigoberto Pleites, the director of the Salvadoran National
Civil Police (PNC), to announce on March 3 this year that the ‘truce technically no
longer exists.’
“Over those same three years, the Salvadoran courts handed out 490 sentences for
homicide cases, according to figures provided by the Attorney General's Office -- 490
sentences. This is equal to slightly over five percent of homicides committed in those
same years. A quick calculation leaves little room for optimism: the impunity rate in El
Salvador stands at over 94 percent….
“El Salvador has a National Victims' Attention Office, which was created in 2011. This
office, which is attached to the Security and Justice Ministry, has 20 employees and an
annual budget of $172,000. Those 20 people attended 143 people last year, mainly
victims of domestic violence, human trafficking or threats. Not one single family member
of a homicide victim.
‘This is the first time that the security framework has included the issue of responding to
all of the trauma that El Salvador's victims suffer, because this had always been left to the
side. The office is starting with the stage of providing psychological, legal and social
attention to the victims. It will need a lot more money to be able to help homicide
victims,’ said the Victims' Attention director, Fatima Ortiz.
“The unit calculated how much money it costs the country to provide attention to each
victim. Attending a rape or sexual assault victim, for example, entails a cost of $5,000,
which includes: legal and psychological counseling, supplies, accommodations and
transport for six months. They have estimated that attention to victims of violence
averages around $3,500. They would need at least $8.7 million to attend at least one
family member (mother, son, wife, husband) of all 2,499 victims of homicide in 2013.
9. Hector Silva Avalos, Corruption in El Salvador: Politicians, Police, and
Transportistas (CLALS Working Paper Series No. 4), March 2014, available at
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2419174## …………………
“Corruption and the infiltration of public institutions in Central America by organized
crime groups is an unaddressed issue that lies at the core of the increasing violence and
democratic instability that has afflicted the region in the last decade. In El Salvador,
infiltration has mutated into a system capable of determining important political and
strategic decisions, such as the election of high-level judicial officials and the shaping of
the state approach to fighting crime. This paper addresses corruption in El Salvador’s
National Civil Police (PNC), the law enforcement agency created under the auspices of
the 1992 Peace Accord that ended the country’s 12-year civil war. Archival and field
research presented here demonstrates that the PNC has been plagued by its own
‘original sin’: the inclusion of former soldiers that worked with criminal groups and
preserved a closed power structure that prevented any authority from investigating them
for over two decades. This original sin has allowed criminal bands formed in the 1980s
as weapon or drug smugglers to forge connections with the PNC and to develop into
sophisticated drug trafficking organizations (DTOs). These new DTOs are now involved
in money laundering, have secured pacts with major criminal players in the region—such
as Mexican and Colombian cartels—and have learned how to use the formal economy
and financial system. These ‘entrepreneurs’of crime, long tolerated and nurtured by law
enforcement officials and politicians in El Salvador, are now major regional players
themselves.
“This working paper is an abridged version of an investigation by Salvadoran journalist
Héctor Silva Ávalos. The contents are excerpts from a forthcoming book entitled,
Infiltrators: A Chronicle of Corruption in the National Civil Police of El Salvador….
“The PNC was created under the Peace Accords to take over for the National Police,the
Financial Police and the National Guard—three security bodies closely associated with
the armed forces, which the United Nations (UN) Truth Commission singled out as the
perpetrators of grave violations of human rights, extrajudicial killings and massacres.
The PNC was to be the launch pad for a new culture of peace. Due to its closeness with
the people, the role of the new police was considered essential to the process of
democratizing the country. The state rested its hopes on the PNC, trusting it would apply
the new laws, gain the trust of the civilian population, and, finally, legitimize the state’s
right to use force to maintain order and implement legal values during El Salvador’s
post-war years, which they worried would be turbulent. If the PNC failed, the UN said at
the time, this would threaten the entire peace process in the future.
“The PNC did fail, and to this day the Salvadoran process of consolidating peace and
democracy remains incomplete and weakened by this failure…. It was the international
community, represented by the UN, the incipient Salvadoran civil society, and even the
victims of police abuse themselves, as well as a few visionary police, who stopped the
PNC from moving backwards. The good news, however, ends there.
“The investigation undertaken in this series—and in the book Infiltrators: A Chronicle of
Corruption in the National Civil Police of El Salvador, which will be published in San
Salvador in the coming weeks—shows the PNC has failed. It failed in the task of
constructing a new culture of legality and in changing the conduct of its officials.
“It failed in the task of creating effective methods of internal reform. And, with
devastating consequences for its mission of pursuing and preventing criminal activity, the
PNC failed in the task of training agents capable of investigating and punishing those
responsible for breaking the law, without taking into account their political connections,
ideologies or socio-economic status. Like its predecessors, the PNC specialized in
obstructing justice and guaranteeing impunity for those with sufficient influence or
money.
“The UN warned time and time again of the risk that the PNC was born contaminated or
without effective tools to clean itself up, while certain foreign officials took note of the
lack of political will of successive governments to build an independent and professional
public force. As they predicted, institutional weakness took its toll.
“It was through the police that transnational organized crime, above all drug trafficking
organizations and money launderers, penetrated the political system and the social fabric
of the country….
“As the country debated the validity of imprisoning hundreds of youth linked to gangs in
the past decade, along the porous land border with Honduras and coasts of the Gulf of
Fonseca, a powerful consortium known as the Perrones that smuggled dairy and
undocumente migrants prepared to use their old routes of transfer to move a much more
profitable product: cocaine. The group was led by José Natividad Luna Pereira, alias
‘Chepe Luna,’ and Reynerio Flores Lazo, and reinforced by corrupt police and local
judges. Raúl, a source who asked not to be identified, and a smuggler who witnessed that
transformation, highlighted a common perception: ‘For someone who understands the
contraband trade, anything can happen.’
“The United States—which through its antinarcotics, judicial and police attaches was
very familiar with the routes used for smuggling, and especially those used for people
trafficking and understood that those traffickers are often one and the same—greeted the
new government of Elías Antonio Saca in 2004 with a proposal: take down this Chepe
Luna.
“As described in police profiles compiled during the administrations of President
Francisco Guillermo Flores Pérez (1999-2004) and President Elías Antonio Saca (20042009), Luna was a successful cattle rancher who became involved in moving contraband
and smuggling people and drugs. He got his only identification card (DUI) in Santa Rosa
de Lima, La Unión, in eastern El Salvador, on August 16, 2003. He registered his
personal details at 9:59 a.m. and 13 minutes later, he had his identification, number
2936356: Born on February 25, 1970, in the municipality of Pasaquina, La Unión, the
5’4” José Natividad Luna Pereira is the life partner of Marlenis Sonia Cabrera….
“Records belonging to El Salvador’s National Civil Police (PNC) certify that on March
21, 2002, Luna participated in the assault of two officers who had pursued a vehicle
loaded with contraband cheese. He was later arrested for this incident.
“During the trial, five days later, the Attorney General’s Office added charges of issuing
threats, after he shouted at and accosted his accusers. Three years earlier, he had been
arrested for smuggling. On both occasions, the cases fell apart due to a lack of evidence,
and he walked free unscathed.
“Soon, he established himself as the most powerful smuggler in eastern El Salvador,
thanks to the territorial control he exercised over the wetlands bordering the Gulf of
Fonseca, his access to goods in Nicaragua and Honduras, and most importantly, an
extensive network of collaborators he slowly built up within the state, especially in the
PNC, but also in the Attorney General’s Office and the judicial system. A 2004 report
prepared by the Finance Ministry said: ‘The smuggling of all kinds of goods increased
because police chiefs began receiving gifts from the powerful structures [...] in late 2003
and the first nine months of 2004; the police favored smugglers to the extent that
merchandise owners who paid bribes went untouched.’
“Chepe Luna’s strategy was the same as that of other smugglers on the continent who
ultimately became drug traffickers: territorial control; access and management of a
logistics transport network capable of moving goods safely and quickly; and enough
money to buy off the authorities and even bring them into the business.
“A press release from September 2004 highlights his modus operandi: agents from the
Financial Division cleared the route for the cheese smugglers in the blind passage of El
Cusuco. Other agents colluded with the smugglers, and an army captain oversaw soldiers
who helped unload blocks of cheese. Everything happened just meters from a house
owned by Chepe Luna in Barrancones, on the Gulf of Fonseca, near the shared sea entry
by El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, through which all types of weapons and
contraband passed during the Central American wars in the1980s.
“Another police report, drawn up in 2004 by an institutional committee led by the
Finance Ministry to combat smuggling, includes testimony from a police intelligence
group that talks about the social base the smuggler had built: ‘Luna coordinates
speedboats and has landing docks in the gulf. There is one on Perico Island, at the
entrance of the Barrancones channel, in the Goascoran River. Chepe Luna has a
property on a small island there, where 25 families work for him. The report says Chepe
Luna handled similar communities on the islands of Muruhaca, El Cedro and San Juan,
and in the estuaries of La Manzanilla and El Robalón. …
“In late 2004, under the DEA’s watch, the administration of President Antonio Saca had
formed a working group to profile Chepe Luna and prepare an operation to capture him.
In addition to a U.S. delegation, the PNC, the Attorney General’s Office, the Security
Ministry and the special investigations unit of the Finance Ministry’s General Internal
Revenue Directorate all participated in the group.
“‘The idea that the U.S. sold us was that we should, as the new government, demonstrate
our commitment in the fight against organized crime, which was something that seemed
feasible in those early days. And they suggested doing so through complicated operations
that involved monitoring crimes such as evasion, or smuggling. That is to say, the
investigation was focused on the financial side,’ one of the ministers who participated in
the group said in 2009.
“The group decided to begin a relentless pursuit of Chepe Luna. Capturing him would
mean demonstrating that the PNC had not been infiltrated, that the Technical Secretariat
of the Presidency was really working to control smuggling as part of its fiscal policy, and
that El Salvador was serious about the war on drugs. But the mission failed in these
goals because the first premise was false: the PNC had for years been infiltrated by
smugglers from the east.
“The researchers began by gathering intelligence reports and court records, including
those open against Chepe Luna in New York. They also called on the National Registry of
Natural Persons and the Finance Ministry to develop a complete profile of him. During
Semana Santa (a week-long Easter celebration) in 2005, in an international operation
that included the assistance of the Nicaraguan police, they made their first attempt to
capture Luna…
“And indeed: the man that Salvadoran, American and Nicaraguan police all awaited
would not come. Chepe Luna had escaped. When the minister’s phone finally rang at the
beach house, he was told the whole plan had collapsed. The only possibility, thought the
minister, was that the group had missed its chance to capture the drug trafficker. From
the outset, the minister suspected police officers had been involved. It was not the first
time that complicity at the highest levels had destroyed investigations like this. And it
would not be the last.
“In 2006, a year after that failed operation, the Salvadoran government embarked on a
kind of silent cleansing that included the transfer of PNC Director General Ricardo
Menesses to the Salvadoran Embassy in Washington, as a police liaison, in a position
created ad hoc by the executive.
“Three years later, Inspector Zaira Navas would investigate him and four other senior
police chiefs for alleged links to Chepe Luna, including Cachorro, who the PNC director
in 2008, Francisco Rovira, had rescued from ostracism by naming him head of the Police
Intelligence Center (CIP), despite internal reports linking him with the Perrones.
“Ultimately, Zaira Navas’ investigations were overshadowed by the lack of political
support for President Mauricio Funes Cartagena, with attacks coming from the PNC and
some right-wing parties.
“After the failure of the operation against Chepe Luna in 2004, one of many failures
caused by complicity between the capo and police, the minister decided to restrict access
to the group at the end of 2005. ‘I informed the executive of everything. What just
happened was very serious. They knew everything. We also shared our suspicions about
the PNC,’ said the minister in 2009.
“What did President Saca do? Nothing, or very little, said the former official….
“The experience with José Natividad ‘Chepe’ Luna—the drug trafficker who had eluded
a giant dragnet in 2004—had demonstrated the leaks from the National Police of El
Salvador (PNC) were continuous and, in general, all the history of the contraband in the
west had an extensive element of police and district attorney collusion. With that in mind,
the Special Antinarcotics Group (GEAN) decided to send the newest police to the stations
of La Unión and San Miguel to collect intelligence about the movement of drugs and to
begin assembling cases against the transporters. Thus was born Operation Chameleon.
“Agent 1, one of the GEAN investigators who participated in Operation Chameleon,
explained the origins of the name: ‘The idea was to change what had been there and
adapt to the terrain to be able to function, to really be able to obtain information; it was
known that the PNC there worked with the drug traffickers.’
“From the moment the GEAN arrived in Santa Rosa de Lima and to El Tamarindo, one
of the beaches suspected of receiving cocaine shipments, they could see the corruption in
the police and the politicians in the area. Óscar René Molina Manzanares, one of the
members of Los Perrones, who was convicted in 2010 of money laundering, was one of
the most familiar names in the area. ‘He threw the parties in El Tamarindo,’ Agent 1
said. ‘For example, I have seen the checks he used to finance local festivals in the Santa
Rosa sector of El Tamarindo. There were letters that some mayors sent to this man
asking for him to help them do these parties. The guy was loved. He had money and
brought musical groups, the expensive groups from Mexico…The parties were courtesy
of Mr. Molina Manzanares.’
“The parties, say the police, not only served to win supporters and buy politicians, but
they were also the perfect meeting point for narcotraffickers: ‘We began to see that
expensive cars arrived in the middle of the parties and that [the same] people [we]
profiled met in an El Tamarindo hotel to plan things,’ Agent 1 explained. ‘This was
something that interested the DEA, that we might discover if Mexicans came to these
parties.’…
“In the photograph, they are both smiling. In the foreground, on the left hand side, a man
in a short-sleeved buttoned white shirt, jeans and a metal watch, holds a bottle of water
in his right hand. He laughs heartily. He is Herbert Saca. On the right hand side is a man
in a hat, also in a white shirt, but with a blue neckerchief. He is Juan Umaña Samayoa, a
candidate for reelection for mayor of Metapán, located in the department of Santa Ana,
in the west of El Salvador, for the Party of National Reconciliation. In the background, a
red tent and the silhouettes of an apparently large group of people.
“Juan Umaña is one of the politicians linked to the Texis Cartel, a structure even bigger
and more influential than the Perrones—the powerful group of dairy and undocumented
immigrant smugglers—according to intelligence sources quoted by El Faro in various
articles in which the structure of the organization is revealed.
“The photograph in which Umaña and Saca share a smile was taken a few weeks before
the former was reelected mayor of Metapán, a municipality in the Texis Cartel’s zone of
influence. Investigations by El Faro reveal that two unionists from the Metapán
mayoralty have been assassinated, a municipal councilor captured with five kilos of
cocaine and even the mayor himself attacked. ‘The five cases,’ say the onlinenewspaper,
‘have one common denominator: they involve the word “narcotrafficking.”’
“When Herbert Saca took the photo at the end of 2011, his position before President
Mauricio Funes Cartagena was already one of privilege. Another journalistic
investigation and various testimonies35 confirm that fact, as do intelligence reports
produced by the Intelligence Organism of the State (OIE) from 2009 onwards.
“‘Herbert began to enter the Presidential House because the inner circle of the president
had driven him crazy with the idea that the FMLN (Farabundo Martí Front for National
Liberation) was watching him and wanted to fuck with him. The Amigos de Mauricio
(Funes) people thought that they could use him as a political operator but they were
wrong: Herbert used them to get on the inside.’
“The person quoted is an ex-official of President Funes, a member of the FMLN, who left
government in 2011 after a change in the security ministry. It is impossible to tell the
story of the underworld in El Salvador without mentioning the police and Herbert
Ernesto Saca Vides. Saca is, according to those who know him, an affable man. His
friends—many and powerful—say that he typifies the folksy style that used to mark
success in Salvadoran politics. His enemies—who also include people with power, above
all on the right of the political spectrum, represented by the Nationalist Republican
Alliance (ARENA)—say that he is one of the darkest political operators of the last two
decades….
“For his relations with the upper echelons of political power; for his capacity to make
his influence transcend both the last ARENA administration and the first FMLN
administration; for his links forged with organized crime since the beginning of the
decade; for being on the radar of the United States since at least 2008; for knowing how
to take advantage of and widen the corrupt structures found within the Salvadoran
National Police (PNC), Herbert Saca can be considered the most effective operator of
political power. He is also responsible for the money from criminal organizations that
finances electoral campaigns, according to testimonies collected from drug traffickers
and senior ex-officials from three different governments. His life history reflects, better
than that of any other political operator, the history of infiltration in El Salvador.
“To get an idea of its scope, analysts at the State Intelligence Agency (IEA) gathered
around 1,797 calls made or received between February 15 and June 15 of that year for
the 7833-7110 and 7180-4034 numbers registered in the name of Herbert Saca.
“These reports register calls made, which, according to intelligence investigators, the
OIE is empowered to do. But no telephone conversations were recorded. Among others,
Saca called PNC inspector Walter Reymundo Lazo Merino, the former head of the
Organized Crime Elite Division and a big player within Interpol El Salvador. He also
called the wife of Marcos Gregorio Sánchez Trejo (president of the Court of Auditors); a
unit of the Legislative Assembly; the mayor of Santa Cruz Analquito, Cuscatlán; the
Supreme Court; four cellulars assigned to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal; Genaro
Ramírez (president of the Association of Salvadoran Bus Companies); and a company
represented by Irving Pavel Tóchez and Nicolás Antonio Salume Babún.
“The report also listed four calls to the number 7190-9100, the corporate account
assigned to President Funes’ Presidential Residence. …
“Herbert Saca’s rise coincides with that of 25 ex-military officials within the PNC—the
moment at which the cancer of corruption began to spread through the PNC. Organized
crime, above all in the east, reaped the first fruits of its investment in agents and officials
that had passed through the national anti-drug trafficking body (DAN), the Financial
Division, the eastern division and the border division. The influence ceased to limit itself
to just the relationships formed by bribes in local brothels and police stations. These
friends were now fully in bed with the powerful, such as the central headquarters of the
PNC in San Salvador. But it wasn’t until the period of Saca’s presidency (2004-2009)
and the arrival of his brother Herbert to the circles of power, always with the PNC
director Ricardo Menesses in front, that the infiltration became institutionalized.
“By 2004, organized crime’s penetration of the state through the PNC had brought the
mafia into politics through three mechanisms: one, the financing of political campaigns,
first at local level and later at a national level, such as the presidential elections in 2009;
two, the payment of bribes to political operators to guarantee the free operation of
criminal networks and the passage and protection of their merchandise; and three, the
prior warning by moles within the PNC of operations aimed at capturing gang members.
And from then on the cancer was there for life….
“In a San Salvador cafe, a U.S. federal agent confesses, ‘The problem with the PNC is
that the commissioners spend more time seeing how to fuck one another over than really
getting anything done… At this stage it could be that the only solution is to get rid of
those promoted early on and look for new leaders.’ His words are still a surprise, as
Washington has been one of the principal allies of the PNC; one of its main financers. Its
primary supporter.
“But 2012 and 2013 were not good years for the relationship between Washington and
the PNC. The truce between the MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs marked a distancing
between state security forces and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
“In 2013, U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy had harsh words for the current Salvadoran
president, Mauricio Funes, about corruption within the police, the lack of transparency
and inaction of the government against money laundering and organized crime….
“At the heart of Leahy’s complaints about the PNC were the oft-repeated questions about
the failures of the state to go after organized crime, about corruption within the PNC,
about the lack of institutionalization and about the presence of suspect officials in public
office.
“‘Although El Salvador shows some signs of progress … it remains a country with weak
democratic institutions, in which the independent judiciary has been attacked, corruption
has increased and transnational criminal organizations and money laundering have
flourished,’ the senator said in Vermont during a Senate plenary on September 18, 2013.
He continued: ‘In the last few years I have seen how Salvadorans are victims of violence,
of a corrupt police, of individuals in security positions who worry more about getting
rich than improving conditions for their people.’
“Senator Patrick Leahy’s words about the PNC very much resembled those 20 years
before by officials from the United Nations who were supervising a territorial deployment
following the signing of peace accords and who spoke, frustrated, about the lack of
controls and transparency in the new police institution.”