As reported by the Salvadoran media El Faro, the escalation of murders occurred after the capture of gang members who were being transported in a government vehicle.
The supposed rupture of a pact between the Government of The Savior and the gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) would have triggered a wave of murders at the end of March, which led Congress to declare an emergency regime.
Between March 25 and 27, 87 people were murdered in the Central American country and the 26th day was the bloodiest in recent Salvadoran history with 62 homicides. The media claimed to have contacted alleged spokespersons for the aforementioned gang, who pointed out the relationship between the murders and the “pact they had maintained for at least two and a half years.”
According to El Faro, the escalation of murders occurred after the capture of gang members who were being transported in a government vehicle. In addition, he published a series of recordings that were supposedly made to Carlos Marroquín, an official of the Nayib Bukele government and who was sanctioned by the United States on charges of corruption and negotiating with gangs.
In seven recordings that El Faro verified and have in its possession, the director of @TejidoSocialSv Carlos Marroquín confesses to members of MS-13 that he tried to keep the pact in force, and blames Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro for the breakdown of the negotiation. pic.twitter.com/IhS4iIiOIV
– El Faro (@_elfaro_) May 18, 2022
The text states that “in the recordings, the official blames what happened on the Minister of Security and Justice, Gustavo Villatoro, whom he describes as a ‘crazy minister,’ and He says he is transferring the messages from the gangs to President Bukele.”
“In four of the seven audio files, Marroquín alludes to Bukele and From what has been said, it can be inferred that the president was aware of Marroquín’s conversations with spokesmen for the Mara Salvatrucha-13 at all times. The director of the Social Fabric even offered a gang member screenshots of his conversations with the president,” says El Faro.
He indicated that “he has verified the authenticity of the audios through a technical expert report, in which he compares, through three software -two forensic audio and one for commercial use- the voice of Marroquín in some of his public interventions with the voice heard on the recordings.
The media maintains that “the frequency analysis showed that the tonalities and frequencies of the recordings coincided in what the software showed as a similarity of 85% to 90%. These percentages are within the maximum ranges of certainty that these programs can draw on their graphs by isolating the frequency of the human voice”.
In December 2021, the United States Department of the Treasury announced sanctions against Marroquín and the director of Penal Centers, Osiris Luna, for the “secret negotiations” between the Government and the MS13.
In a statement, the US noted that Luna and Marroquín “directed, facilitated and organized” a series of meetings with imprisoned gang leaders, as part of the Salvadoran government’s efforts to negotiate “a secret truce” with the bosses of the MS13.
Under the emergency regime, which completed its first 30-day term and was extended for an equal period, more than 30,000 people have been arrested, according to the National Civil Police (PNC). In this context, Congress approved criminal reforms at the request of Bukele, including one that punishes “any demonstration” that alludes to the “territorial control” of the gangs with up to 15 years in prison.