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00:23It was three months since President Donald Trump had returned to office and begun his
00:28major immigration crackdown.
00:31At the White House, the mood was celebratory as he welcomed the leader of El Salvador,
00:36Nayib Bukele.
00:38We appreciate working with you because you want to stop crime, and so do we.
00:44And it's very, very effective, and I want to just say hello to the people of El Salvador
00:49and say they have one hell of a president.
00:53Bukele, who'd once called himself the world's coolest dictator, had become a
00:58key player for Trump.
01:00We actually turned the murder capital of the world, that was the Journalist College, murder
01:06capital of the world, into the safest country in the Western Hemisphere.
01:09Sometimes they say that we imprisoned thousands.
01:12I like to say that we actually liberated millions.
01:15That's very good.
01:17Who gave him that line?
01:19Do you think I can use that?
01:20Yes.
01:21Bukele was giving President Trump much more than a punchline.
01:26He'd opened the doors of El Salvador's notorious prison, known as Cicat, for plane loads of
01:32deportees that the Trump administration had swept up and accused of being gang members.
01:38Cicat is the largest prison in the Americas and is infamous for its harsh conditions.
01:42The Trump administration deported more than 200 Venezuelan migrants from the U.S. to El Salvador,
01:49placed in a notorious high-security prison.
01:53Despite revelations, most of the men had no criminal convictions in the U.S. or proven gang affiliations,
02:00and concerns about harsh treatment.
02:04Both presidents touted it as a win.
02:07It was pretty obvious what Trump was getting out of this deal.
02:11It was much less obvious what Bukele was doing.
02:14Over the past year, frontline and reporters from the El Salvador news outlet El Faro have been investigating what was
02:21behind the controversial deal.
02:27And what Bukele stood again.
02:30All you know about him is his propaganda.
02:34The truth is quite different from what he says.
02:37In this image, I want to recognize who is incapacitated.
02:42Bukele wants to be arrested for having revealed something that he hurt.
02:47You know what?
02:48You are trying to call me dictator.
02:51You prefer to call me dictator to see how they kill the Salvador in the streets.
02:58Bukele has declared a the journalists of El Faro's enemies from a long time.
03:04But the reality is that Bukele is trying to uncover his past.
03:08He needs to help the U.S. to uncover his past.
03:12And that story we haven't finished yet.
03:14We have not yet to tell you.
03:41This program contains graphic imagery.
03:44Viewer discretion is advised.
03:59The roots of the deal between Presidents Trump and Bukele trace back to their first meeting.
04:09The two leaders were in New York for the United Nations General Assembly.
04:19Bukele was promising to help Trump with one of his signature issues, stemming the flow of immigrants into the U
04:25.S.
04:27Bukele decides, you know, he is going to take responsibility for the issue of migration from El Salvador.
04:35It's a great honor to be with the president of El Salvador.
04:38And that's around the time where you start seeing Bukele coming into Trump's orbit and connections forming between the Bukele
04:46team and Trump's world.
04:49The American president was also particularly impressed with the way Bukele was cracking down on El Salvador's notoriously violent gangs.
04:57The president has done an incredible job with MS-13. He realizes what a threat they are and they have
05:04been very, very tough.
05:05Both just have this sort of irreverence that I think appeals to people who see them as not the average
05:13politician.
05:14And I think both respect, at the end of the day, more than anything, power.
05:19And so when they see others who have it, they respect that.
05:23We're very happy to be here and we're hoping that this meeting will only strengthen our relationship even more.
05:30And I think it will because, you know, President Trump is very nice and cool and nice and cool too.
05:36So, thank you very much.
05:40Bukele was emerging as one of Latin America's most popular leaders, building his reputation on being extremely tough on gangs.
05:55El Salvador has never been a Pacific country.
06:06Carlos Martinez is a reporter at El Salvador's premier investigative news outlet, El Faro.
06:13He and his brother Oscar have been reporting on Bukele and the country's gang problems for years.
06:34At the peak of the violence in 2015, El Salvador had the highest murder rate in the world.
06:43The brutal MS-13 gang was battling its rival Barrio 18.
06:47One of the most dangerous countries on earth, a place where criminal gangs control entire neighborhoods.
06:54Bukele had just become mayor of the capital, San Salvador, the epicenter of the violence.
07:00When Bukele arrived at the municipality, the capital,
07:03the country probably experienced one of the most violent moments in history,
07:08which is nothing to say in a country like El Salvador.
07:13At first, Bukele's approach to the violence was less confrontational, promoting social services and community building.
07:20His political discourse was that we needed to have long-time solutions for those communities overtaken by gangs to have
07:29another kind of life,
07:31where kids would have more options than just be part of a gang or be killed.
07:36In almost every single issue, he was very progressive.
07:42We organized every year the Central American Journalism Conference.
07:47When he was mayor of San Salvador, we invited him. He came.
07:53That talk in which he spoke was moderated by Carlos MartÃnez, one of our reporters.
08:15He focused on revitalizing the city center.
08:20He focused on revitalizing the city center.
08:29Crime and violence there dropped. Bukele's popularity rose.
08:39And in 2019, after just one term as mayor, he ran for president.
08:46What was the first thing about Bukele?
08:49The first thing he did is present himself as an outsider,
08:51that he would break with that corrupt past corrupt
08:54that he had administrated the democracy in El Salvador from the Civil War.
08:58And it was a speech that the salvadoreans were dead.
09:04And of that idea, Bukele built his image, The Vengador.
09:09And he managed to transmit this message in a very powerful way.
09:13And the people stole it.
09:15He took more votes than the rest of the parties together.
09:19The citizens of Nayib Armando Bukele Ortiz,
09:24you are in possession of the seat of the constitutional president
09:29of the Republic of El Salvador.
09:34The people voted for Bukele in 2019
09:37because they were full of other electoral offers.
09:40You had to be crazy to continue voting for those political parties.
09:44They had not only become one of the most homicidal countries on the planet,
09:47but they had stolen everything they could have stolen.
09:57Within weeks of taking office, Bukele made a dramatic announcement.
10:02The plan was presented yesterday. It's a complete plan.
10:06There are elements that can't be revealed, evidently.
10:10We're going to make it worth the state where the state should be.
10:15We're going to control the territories
10:17where the people who have more money spend the money
10:19He was now promoting a tougher approach.
10:23He vowed he wouldn't compromise or negotiate with the gangs.
10:38Bukele vowed to be different than the leaders who had ruled El Salvador for decades.
10:42The leaders who had been, you know, convicted in bribery cases,
10:47who had committed graft and who had been shown to actually be negotiating
10:53with the leaders of the powerful street gangs that ruled much of El Salvador.
10:58He declares that he is going to tackle crime and fight the gangs with this new plan,
11:05the Plan Control Territorial.
11:09The details of this plan are very opaque.
11:12But what we know is that he's deploying more police and soldiers around the country.
11:19The country does start to get safer.
11:23In the first months of Bukele's territorial control plan,
11:27over 5,000 people were arrested.
11:30The murder rate hit historic lows.
11:33To the reporters at El Faro, these results seemed too good to be true.
11:38We knew that there was something strange going on.
11:44You can't become a president and the next day reduce so dramatically the homicide rates
11:49without something tricky going on.
11:52As the El Faro reporters started investigating,
11:56another investigation was taking place that would eventually help shed light
12:00on what was behind Bukele's crackdown.
12:05In the U.S., federal authorities were fighting their own campaign against MS-13,
12:11which had taken root in many American cities.
12:14MS-13, the notorious street gang responsible for the wave of violence that has terrorized this community.
12:21MS-13 is an international crime cartel. It's not an overstatement.
12:24It's based in El Salvador. It has rapidly become one of America's largest and deadliest street gangs.
12:31My name is Daniel Bruner. I was a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
12:35My responsibility was MS-13 cases in the state of New Jersey.
12:41MS-13 is one of the most extraordinarily violent gangs that's out there.
12:46I've seen some horrible crime scenes in my years.
12:49You had a quadruple homicide on Long Island.
12:52You have homicides in New Jersey, in Virginia, Maryland.
12:56This is now the 10th murder here in Nassau County since 2016 due to the gang MS-13.
13:05As in El Salvador, the U.S. had a tough-talking president.
13:11It is the policy of this administration to dismantle, decimate, and eradicate MS-13.
13:20One by one, we're liberating our American towns.
13:25I got a call in 2019.
13:28This U.S. attorney said, hey, would you be interested in joining this new task force that we're putting together
13:33that is going to be taking out MS-13 from the top down?
13:42Task Force Vulcan was created by Attorney General Barr under the direction of President Trump.
13:48What we've been in here discussing with the president is Project Vulcan, or Task Force Vulcan,
13:54targeting the higher-level players in the MS-13 operations.
13:59This is probably the meanest, worst gang anywhere in the world, the MS-13 group.
14:06They're sick, they're deranged, and we're taking care of it.
14:11MS-13 members in America, they said, were receiving orders from the gang leadership in El Salvador,
14:18many of whom had been thrown in prison there.
14:21Taking out the leadership in El Salvador and bringing them to the United States changes the entire dynamic of the
14:28organization.
14:29There's leaders on the streets, and then there's leaders in jail.
14:33We wanted them both.
14:35Thank you very much.
14:37Our goal was to get them out of those jails, into U.S. jails, cutting the head off the snake.
14:42Over the next year, Bruner and other agents worked with investigators in El Salvador to build cases to extradite the
14:50jailed MS-13 leaders.
14:52It became a far-reaching effort.
14:55The team was put together to be able to look at all MS-13 criminal activity, including political corruption, including
15:06their influence in government activities.
15:12Task Force Vulcan's investigation would soon intersect with El Faro's reporting.
15:18I met the Vulcan agents who were involved in El Salvador in the persecution of pandillas.
15:25And that people were very interested in my knowledge of pandillas and the baggage they had, investigating this phenomenon.
15:35And as soon as we passed the time, we talked with different sources.
15:41And in the U.S. embassy, we talked with the agents of Vulcan, with my sources.
15:47And in the U.S. embassy, one day, me calls a source from the U.S. embassy.
15:53And he said, I think I have something that interests you.
15:58I need to collect it this afternoon.
16:00But that afternoon I couldn't.
16:02So I called my brother to Oscar.
16:04And I said, look, Oscar, you can already move to where the source is.
16:16I went to that source on the bank, in a partner of Lula.
16:20And he, in a street, gave me aener a manila.
16:23And since I went out of that area, I saw me following a car.
16:27We were used to that.
16:29The state of El Salvador that the organization of the universe would always be contractors for us.
16:48Inside the envelope were surprising details about how Bukele had been getting his results.
17:03The government of Bukele had been negotiating with the Mara Salvatrucha.
17:08Documentos of the government of Bukele, that explained, that detailed and that nombraban
17:15who was entering the prison to sustain a pact with the leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha 13.
17:24The following day I received a call from that,
17:27telling me, through a third person, that he would not be able to contact him.
17:32That my phone was pinched and that, apparently, he had a follow-up.
17:37That is to do an investigation under a lot of pressure.
17:39The documents included prison records showing dozens of covert meetings between government officials and gang leaders since 2019,
17:48as well as intelligence reports and correspondences detailing deals for the reduction in homicides, political support and prison privileges.
17:59There was a pact between Bukele and the gangs.
18:02That is the main reason behind the huge drop in homicide rates.
18:08It was also an electoral pact.
18:12Part of the deal was to control the inhabitants of the communities, the gangs controlled, to vote for Mr. Bukele.
18:21The gangs guaranteed Mr. Bukele that Salvadorans would vote for him in exchange of some benefits.
18:32In the prison log books, the reporters also found the name of Bukele's close aide, Carlos MarroquÃn.
18:41Carlos MarroquÃn is a director of an institution called Social Tissue, which, on paper, this is the institution in charge
18:51of reconstructing the broken tissue of these communities that were submerged by violence.
18:58Carlos MarroquÃn, this is what our reporting tells us, has been one of the main links between Mr. Bukele and
19:08the gangs.
19:10He is really a song with the gangs.
19:14To verify it, we continued with sources of penitentiary centers that confirmed our income, custodians.
19:23We carried the documents to verify their authenticity.
19:27We got sources within the gangs that confirmed that type of negotiations.
19:31In September of 2020, we published, the government of Bukele has more than a year negociating with the Mara Salvatrucha
19:3913,
19:39support electoral and reduction of homicides.
19:46The night that we published, that material had dozens of thousands of readings.
19:52After that publication, Bukele reaccionó iracundo.
19:55So, what did we believe?
19:57That the Faro mented.
19:58Where did he?
19:59In his article.
20:00And in those supposed documents, which are not official documents,
20:03These are false photographs of supposed documents official.
20:07We accused him of being mentirosos, of working for political opposition.
20:13We accused him of a lot of things.
20:27The documents and El Faro reports contradicted what Bukele had been saying publicly,
20:33and to the international media, about his contacts with the gangs.
20:37Would you ever negotiate with them?
20:39No.
20:40Why not?
20:41Well, because you're giving them legitimacy.
20:45Neither Bukele nor MaraquÃn, nor anyone from the administration, would agree to an interview for this film.
20:52On local TV, Carlos MaraquÃn brushed off El Faro's reporting.
20:57No hay pruebas reales, pues.
20:59Todo lo que ellos han escrito, están diciendo, está...
21:03Es un supuesto.
21:04Es un supuesto.
21:05But the El Faro reporters later managed to interview two leaders of the Barrio 18 gang, MS-13's main rival,
21:13who'd fled the country and said they'd made deals with Bukele's allies for years,
21:19including to help him get elected mayor of San Salvador.
21:23My name is Carlos Cartagena.
21:28Todos me conocen como Charlie.
21:32Charlie, Carlos Cartagena, es uno de los más famosos pandilleros de El Salvador desde hace décadas.
21:39They asked the support of our people, of our communities, of our colonies,
21:45to be able to choose him as an alcalde.
21:52How much money did they give you for the support?
21:55They gave you a quarter of a million.
21:58Only for you?
21:59No, that was repartible, that was repartible between the two families.
22:03The party of Naif Bukele in that time, the FMLN,
22:08paid, according to Charlie,
22:09to allow the population to vote for Naif Bukele
22:14to be alcalde of San Salvador
22:15and for the presidential candidate of that party.
22:21Also, we interviewed Charlie,
22:23we interviewed another leader of the 18th, Lineman.
22:28He only asked us to not reveal his real name
22:31nor his face,
22:33because he thinks that in his current circumstances,
22:35where he is, that could affect him.
22:38The two gang leaders told El Faro
22:41that after Bukele became president in 2019,
22:45they were allowed to hold meetings
22:46for their leaders in prisons.
23:04El Faro reporters showed one of the gang leaders pictures
23:08they'd obtained of masked men entering the prison.
23:31The gang leaders confirmed that their pact with Bukele
23:34and his associates, like Marrokin,
23:37included agreements to reduce homicides.
23:41What was the case with Bukele
23:44about assassinations?
23:46Well, that was to stop them.
23:48But you could not punish them
23:50that they were violated those kinds of agreements?
24:11If there was a killing, the other gang leader said,
24:15MaraquÃn had given advice on how to keep it off the radar.
24:22He said with MaraquÃn, if you do something without body, there's no crime.
24:29That's what I'm saying. Without body, there's no crime.
24:33Alfano reporters repeatedly tried to talk to MaraquÃn, but he didn't respond to them.
24:39When Bukele sustained this pact with the gangs, he told all the Salvadoran population
24:45that the violence had reduced because of the efficiency of his security plan.
24:51Well, that was not true.
24:54Not long after Alfaro published its story about Bukele's relationship with the gangs,
24:59prosecutors in the U.S. filed an indictment against MS-13 leaders on narco-terrorism charges,
25:07alleging they directed the gang's American operations from prison cells in El Salvador.
25:13I was part of the team that put together the indictment. At that time, once we charged them,
25:20then we put forward the documentation requesting them to be extradited to the United States.
25:28Bruner said he and his colleagues hoped Bukele would hand over the gang leaders they were seeking.
25:34Yes, you can have these top 14 members because they're the leaders, let's look good for the world,
25:42that we want to rid MS-13, getting them out of the equation. So we thought that it would work
25:48in our favor.
25:49But then, events in El Salvador would complicate the effort.
25:53The United States has expressed concern after El Salvador's National Assembly dismissed the attorney general
25:59and five judges from the constitutional court.
26:02Bukele was in the midst of consolidating his power. He and his allies forced out officials who'd been working with
26:09Bruner
26:09and Task Force Vulcan, including the country's attorney general, who himself was investigating Bukele's ties to gangs.
26:17They also replaced key judges with Bukele loyalists on the nation's top court, which has the final say in approving
26:25extraditions.
26:28When Bukele changed the structure of the Supreme Court, that's really where it changed the entire relationship with Vulcan
26:37and with how we would get our results. We knew that the door was pretty much shut from getting anybody
26:47out of El Salvador.
26:49ProPublica reporters T. Christian Miller and Sebastian Rotella have written about the fight over the extraditions,
26:56on Bukele's dealings with El Salvador's gangs.
27:01We had sources, both in the United States and sources who were very close to the Supreme Court in El
27:08Salvador,
27:08who were telling us that the El Salvador and Supreme Court justices were receiving calls from Bukele's office,
27:16essentially saying, do whatever it takes to stop extraditions.
27:22What the gangs were getting was a deal that was more sophisticated and more expansive than the deals that previous
27:30governments had cut.
27:31And what the gangs asked for is, very insistently, is protection from extradition.
27:37Bukele's government insisted the gang leaders needed to first face justice in their own country.
27:43But in Washington, where President Biden was now in office, there was growing tension with Bukele.
27:51He stalled or completely killed at least a dozen extradition requests.
27:56And that was something that was concerning for us.
27:59Juan Gonzalez was one of Biden's senior advisors on El Salvador.
28:03He said he was concerned about the reports of Bukele's deal with the gangs.
28:07The agreement that he entered with the gangs allowed the gang leadership to continue to operate.
28:12So it was almost like a detente between Bukele and the gangs.
28:16In late 2021, the Biden administration ordered sanctions on two of Bukele's closest associates,
28:24including Carlos Marroquin, for negotiating with the gangs.
28:29Bukele responded, saying the allegations were an obvious lie.
28:34The U.S. government is really putting the pressure on Bukele over extradition, over democracy, over a lot of things.
28:41And one of the main sort of points of contention is this extradition request for one of the top people
28:48in MS-13,
28:49which is Elmer Canales Rivera, also known as Krug.
28:53There's an extradition notice for him.
28:55There's an Interpol Red notice for him.
28:57Elmer Canales Rivera was one of the imprisoned gang leaders named in the documents obtained by El Faro,
29:04as having helped make the pact between MS-13 and the Bukele government.
29:09Krug es fundador de la cúpula de la Mara Salvatrucha 13 en El Salvador, que se conoce como La Ranfla.
29:18Krug era uno de los lÃderes más violentos de la Mara Salvatrucha 13,
29:22a alguien que se jactaba de haber asesinado a algunas de sus vÃctimas con sus propias manos.
29:29As the U.S. pressed Bukele to extradite him, there was a startling development.
29:35Suddenly, Proke, who is in prison in El Salvador, disappears.
29:41So, tuvimos documentos donde el juez que llevaba la causa de Krug preguntaba, ¿dónde está Krug?
29:48Lo conseguimos rastrear porque la novia era muy, digamos, fan de usar redes sociales.
29:57Ella sacaba fotografÃas y videos donde aparecÃa Krug e intentaba tapar su cara con emoticones.
30:04Pero conocÃamos al dedillo los tatuajes de ese hombre.
30:08Entonces, aunque le pusiera un osito a la cara de Krug, sabÃamos que era él.
30:16Cruzó a Guatemala y comió en un restaurante cerca de la frontera.
30:20Logramos comprobar, gracias al menú que estaba sobre la mesa,
30:24en qué restaurante de Guatemala pasó comiéndose un cóctel de camarones.
30:29Decidimos seguir en silencio esa cuenta hasta que el rastro se pierde en México.
30:36El asunto es que luego supimos otra cosa.
30:42El Faro reporters obtained a secret recording made by gang members of Carlos MarroquÃn,
30:48saying he'd personally helped Krug, whom he called El Viejo, the old man, get out of prison.
30:56Y yo al viejo lo saqué de adentro, brother, en una forma de ayudarles a todos y de demostrarles mi
31:01lealtad y confianza.
31:02Pues yo mismo lo fui a traer allá y yo mismo lo fui a Guatemala.
31:07Esta es una confesión de un agente formal del gobierno de El Salvador
31:12que llevó a un pandillero miembro de la cúpula de la Mara Salvatrucha y lo liberó en Guatemala
31:18a sabiendas de que debÃa 40 años en El Salvador
31:22y a sabiendas de que el gobierno de los Estados Unidos lo estaba requiriendo en extradición.
31:33The El Faro reporters tried to talk to MarroquÃn about the recording, but he didn't respond.
31:39A prominent member of Bukele's party in the Congress has cast doubt on its authenticity.
31:45Si este hombre estaba preso, ¿cómo quedó libre?
31:47¿Quién lo ayudó?
31:48Está el audio de Carlos MarroquÃn diciendo que lo llevó a Guatemala.
31:51Bueno, ellos dicen que es el audio de él.
31:53Yo te digo, a mÃ.
31:54Aún no entendemos exactamente por qué Bukele liberó a Krug.
31:59Tenemos una hipótesis.
32:01Y la hipótesis es que liberó a Krug para que controlara las ansiedades de las estructuras en las calles
32:07y les ordenara mantener el pacto de reducir los homicidios.
32:12Pero si esa era la misión de Krug, la misión de Krug falló rotundamente.
32:18By 2022, gang violence was flaring again in El Salvador.
32:24Ese pacto tuvo sus altibajos.
32:27Porque cuando las pandillas se sentÃan por alguna razón incómodas o pensaban que el pacto no avanzaba como querÃan, mataban.
32:36Esa era su moneda de cambio, la muerte.
32:38Siempre lo fue.
32:40It reached a boiling point.
32:42Over one weekend, after the gang claimed some of its members, who they believed should have been protected by their
32:48deal with the Bukele government, were arrested.
32:53Murieron 87 personas en un solo fin de semana sin Tom Nizón.
33:00La mayorÃa no eran pandilleros, no habÃa sido parte de la guerra entre pandillas.
33:06En solo tres dÃas se han producido cerca de 80 asesinatos, 62 de ellos ayer sábado.
33:12El sábado 26 de marzo de 2022 fue el dÃa más violento de toda la posguerra salvadoreña.
33:21Era la mala salvatrucha intentando enviar un mensaje al gobierno diciendo, nosotros podemos subir y podemos bajar los asesinatos a
33:30voluntad.
33:31Amid the violence, MS-13 gave the government 72 hours to release the gang members it had arrested.
33:39In a recorded phone call obtained by Alfaro, Carlos MarroquÃn told a gang leader he had relayed the ultimatum to
33:46Bukele, who he referred to as Batman.
34:10Y Bukele, que hay que reconocer que a muchas cosas reacciona rápidamente, decide convocar a su asamblea legislativa, que él
34:20ya controlaba plenamente, y ordenarles que establezca algún régimen de excepción.
34:26Y entonces termina el pacto.
34:27Esta noche me estoy sumando para poder dar nuestro voto a este régimen de excepción.
34:35Esos terroristas, esos criminales van a pagar las consecuencias.
34:41Queda aprobado el proyecto de decreto que contiene régimen de excepción.
34:48The state of exception was an emergency measure granting Bukele expanded powers.
34:54Among them, the ability to detain gang suspects for long periods without trial, or even charges.
35:08Bukele promete que iba a terminar con las pandillas, con el régimen de excepción.
35:13Y en esas primeras semanas se capturaron a miles de salvadoreños.
35:18Las cárceles se llenaron de gente.
35:20De pandilleros, claro.
35:24Y a inocentes, a un montón.
35:42Sin embargo, desarticuló a las pandillas a través de esa embestida.
35:47La pesca con dinamita funcionó.
35:52Entramos caminando a comunidades que, te digo, antes nos hubieran matado por entrar caminando a esas cosas.
35:57Sin pedirle permiso a nadie, sin negociar con nadie, sin avisarle a nadie.
36:01Y ahÃ, en todas las comunidades, la gente nos dijo, cuando les preguntamos,
36:05¿en el régimen se han llevado a gente inocente?
36:08Las 14 nos dijeron sÃ.
36:10¿Y está feliz con el régimen?
36:12SÃ.
36:14La gente estaba dispuesta a que se llevaran a unos inocentes a cambio de que ya no hubiera pandillas.
36:21Y yo eso lo puedo entender.
36:23Nosotros, como reporteros del Faro, sabemos lo que las pandillas le hicieron a esa gente.
36:28Sabemos cómo descuartizaron.
36:31Lo sabemos.
36:32The state of exception is an emergency measure that our constitution considers for a month
36:37with the possibility of being renewed.
36:39We are entering our fifth year under a state of exception.
36:43It means that it has been renewed month after month by Congress.
36:47Some of the people arrested ended up in Sucat,
36:52Bukele's new terrorism confinement center.
37:05Bukele shows off these new prisoners, like the spoils of war.
37:13He produces these slick social media videos
37:19showing hundreds of guys in prison garb
37:26crouched in humiliating positions.
37:30That imagery really goes global.
37:33President Bukele is one of the most popular leaders in the entire world.
37:39As proof of his success,
37:41Bukele even welcomed the Miss Universe pageant
37:44to the once violent city of San Salvador.
37:46Please put your hands together for President Bukele!
37:57But also during this time in 2023,
38:00prosecutors in the U.S. had unsealed a second indictment
38:04that echoed much of El Faro's reporting
38:06on the pact Bukele had made with MS-13,
38:10including the role of Bukele's director of social fabric,
38:13Carlos MarroquÃn.
38:14The second major indictment by Task Force Vulcan
38:19was released in February of 2023.
38:21This included guys who actually would execute
38:25and communicate the orders from the Salvadoran prison
38:28to different gang groups in the United States.
38:32This document is really, for us, was really interesting
38:35because it really spells out in very clear terms
38:39that the U.S. government believes
38:41that there was a truce going on
38:44or a negotiation going on
38:46between the Bukele government
38:47and the MS-13 gang.
38:51MS-13 leaders agreed to reduce the number of public murderers
38:55in El Salvador,
38:56which politically benefited the government of El Salvador
38:59by creating the perception
39:00the government was reducing the murder rate,
39:03when, in fact, MS-13 leaders continued
39:06to authorize murderers
39:07where the victims' bodies were buried
39:09or otherwise hidden.
39:11Bukele didn't publicly respond to the indictment,
39:14but it further strained relations
39:16with the Biden administration.
39:19I think that during the Biden years,
39:21El Salvador and the United States
39:23had the lowest point
39:27in the two countries' relationship
39:29since, as far as I can remember.
39:34If it were known
39:35that Bukele, portraying himself
39:38as a law and order candidate,
39:40was sending his people
39:42to go and negotiate
39:43with the very people
39:44he was supposed to be cracking down on,
39:46it could also result in criminal charges
39:48because the Salvadoran Supreme Court
39:50had designated MS-13 as terrorists.
39:53And there was any likelihood
39:54that if Bukele leaves office
39:56and leaves government,
39:57that the incoming government
39:58would pursue him with criminal charges.
40:03Along with the indictment,
40:06the U.S. was able to arrest
40:07key MS-13 fugitives
40:09who'd left El Salvador.
40:11Elmer Canales Rivera, alias Crook,
40:15un peligroso e influyente cabecilla
40:17de la Mara Salvatrucha,
40:18fue capturado recientemente en México.
40:23After two years on the run,
40:25Elmer Canales Rivera,
40:27the MS-13 leader known as Crook,
40:29was finally captured.
40:31The U.S. and the Mexican authorities
40:33have been working very closely
40:34to pursue a number of the MS-13 leaders
40:37who were active in Mexico,
40:38and he is arrested in Tapachula
40:41near the border with Guatemala,
40:43and he's brought to Houston
40:44where the U.S. takes him into custody.
40:47It was something that, you know,
40:48we celebrated when the Department of Justice
40:50and Vulcan actually were able
40:51to kind of engineer this.
40:53He was charged with orchestrating murders
40:55and drug trafficking in the U.S.
40:57and pled not guilty.
41:00But there was much more behind his arrest.
41:05According to people familiar with the matter,
41:08once he was in U.S. custody,
41:10Crook provided recordings and videos
41:13about the deal-making that happened
41:15between the El Salvador government and MS-13.
41:18Washington Post reporter John Hudson
41:20broke the story about Crook becoming an informant.
41:24Crook provided an incredible amount
41:27of information to the United States government
41:29about the allegedly corrupt deals
41:31between MS-13 and the El Salvador government
41:34in exchange for the vast reduction
41:37in violence in the country.
41:40Desde ese momento,
41:42Estados Unidos tiene en sus manos
41:43y todavÃa a dÃa de hoy lo tiene en sus manos
41:45a la prueba viviente
41:46de que el gobierno de Nayib Bukele
41:50negoció con un grupo
41:51que según Estados Unidos
41:53es un grupo terrorista transnacional.
41:56Crook es la prueba viviente de eso.
41:58Si en algún momento Estados Unidos
42:00quisiera enterrar a Bukele en un juicio,
42:04su mejor opción es Crook.
42:09En 2024,
42:11amid the increasing evidence
42:13of Bukele's past dealings with the gangs,
42:16he was re-elected in a landslide.
42:23And though his relationship
42:24with the Biden administration
42:26had been strained,
42:27he had other influential American allies
42:30who would soon become even more important.
42:34His second inauguration
42:36is like a who's who of the MAGA elite.
42:41You have Donald Trump Jr.,
42:43Tucker Carlson,
42:44all of these people
42:45who are so essential
42:47to kind of crafting
42:48the MAGA narrative in the U.S.
42:50have come to El Salvador.
42:51If you can fix El Salvador,
42:52what are the lessons for the rest of us?
42:53What did you do first?
42:56Well, of course,
42:57you cannot do anything
42:59if you don't have peace.
43:01All right, guys,
43:01we got the whole crew here.
43:03We are now in El Salvador.
43:04We got the police escort.
43:05Bukele has bet his future, really,
43:08on his alliance
43:09with the Trump Republicans.
43:11Let's make America
43:12and El Salvador great again.
43:13And that bet pays off
43:15because Trump is re-elected.
43:18Thank you very much, everybody.
43:20Well...
43:20Comes into office.
43:21Thank you very much.
43:22And instead of the United States
43:24that is criticizing Bukele
43:25for what he's doing,
43:27he now has a partner
43:28in the United States.
43:29We will begin the process
43:31of returning millions
43:32and millions of criminal aliens
43:35back to the places
43:36from which they came.
43:38Trump's promised a closed border
43:40and mass deportations.
43:41Many are wondering
43:42what steps will he take
43:44to make good on his word?
43:46Within weeks
43:46of Trump taking office,
43:48Bukele saw an opportunity
43:50that could help him
43:51and the American president.
43:55Secretary of State Marco Rubio
43:57was traveling
43:57through Central America
43:59to gain support
44:00for the administration's
44:01immigration efforts.
44:02He stopped in El Salvador
44:04to meet Bukele.
44:05They spent a lot of time together.
44:07They delivered statements together.
44:09And Bukele even invited him
44:11to his lake house.
44:14Reporter John Hudson
44:15traveled with Rubio
44:16to El Salvador.
44:19Bukele made
44:20an extraordinary offer.
44:22He said he was willing
44:23to use his mega prison,
44:25Sukkot,
44:26to house almost anyone
44:28that the United States
44:29wanted to deport
44:30to El Salvador.
44:32He has agreed
44:33to accept for deportation
44:36any illegal alien
44:37in the United States
44:38who is a criminal
44:39from any nationality,
44:41be they MS-13
44:42or Tren d'Aragua,
44:43and house them
44:44in his jails.
44:45The Trump administration
44:46jumped at the offer.
44:48But Bukele wanted
44:49something, too.
44:50The return to El Salvador
44:52of nine indicted
44:54MS-13 leaders
44:55in U.S. custody,
44:57including the gang leader
44:58turned informant,
45:00Crook.
45:02Rubio is trying
45:03to seal the deal,
45:04and he mentions
45:05that he is under pressure
45:06from the president.
45:08Bukele, at this moment,
45:09has maximum leverage
45:10over the United States,
45:12and he says
45:12to Marco Rubio,
45:13I need nine MS-13 members
45:16in U.S. custody
45:17in order for this deal
45:18to take place.
45:19You need to give me
45:20your word
45:21that I'm going to get
45:22these nine men.
45:25Rubio then says
45:26to Bukele,
45:26you have my word,
45:28but there's a problem.
45:29Some of the MS-13 members
45:31you're asking for
45:32were actually informants
45:33to the United States
45:34government,
45:35and as informants,
45:36they enjoyed
45:36protective status.
45:40According to officials
45:41familiar with
45:42these conversations,
45:43Rubio is promising him
45:45the United States
45:46will do this deal.
45:47He will get his men,
45:49but it is going to take
45:50a little bit of time.
45:51On March 16th,
45:54plane loads of deportees
45:55from the U.S.
45:56began arriving
45:57in El Salvador.
45:59The Trump administration
46:00deported more than
46:01200 Venezuelan migrants
46:03from the U.S.
46:04to El Salvador.
46:05El Salvadoran
46:06President Nayib Bukele
46:07posted a video on X
46:09showing them arriving
46:10and being taken
46:10into custody.
46:12Placed in a notorious
46:13high-security prison.
46:14President Trump
46:16had gotten what he wanted.
46:17And among the mostly
46:19Venezuelan men
46:20being ushered
46:21into Secault
46:22was a sign
46:23Bukele was starting
46:24to get what he wanted, too.
46:27Cuando llegan
46:27los primeros tres vuelos
46:29con venezolanos deportados,
46:31los periodistas salvadoreños
46:32que hemos cubierto pandillas
46:34desde hace años
46:34nos quedamos anonadados
46:36cuando vimos
46:37que uno de esos hombres
46:39hincados
46:39era César Humberto Larios.
46:43Greñas.
46:45Greñas was a founding member
46:47of the MS-13 leadership
46:48and his capture in 2024
46:51was touted by U.S. authorities
46:53as a major achievement.
46:55But now,
46:56the Justice Department
46:57had dropped its case
46:58against him,
46:59citing sensitive
47:01and important
47:02foreign policy considerations.
47:05It was a deal
47:06within a deal.
47:07You had on the surface
47:08a deal
47:09where Trump
47:10sent deportees
47:12to Bukele's prison,
47:13but in fact,
47:15the U.S.
47:15was sending back
47:16a criminal
47:16who Bukele wanted
47:18in El Salvador
47:19to protect his story
47:20and to hide information
47:22about the secret negotiations
47:24he had had
47:25with gangs in his country.
47:37After Greñas' return,
47:40Bukele said it would help
47:41El Salvador
47:41finalize intelligence gathering
47:44and go after
47:45the last remnants
47:46of MS-13.
47:49No one from the Trump
47:50administration
47:50would agree
47:51to an interview
47:52about its deal
47:53with Bukele.
47:54But Secretary Rubio
47:55has defended
47:56the Salvadoran president.
47:59You couldn't even live
47:59in El Salvador.
48:00You couldn't walk
48:01the streets of El Salvador.
48:02Now it's one of the safest
48:03countries in the region.
48:04That's why
48:04President Bukele
48:05has, you know,
48:0690-something percent
48:07approval rating.
48:08What did I think
48:09when I saw Greñas
48:10get off that plane?
48:12I was sad.
48:14I was sad
48:15because I knew
48:15that was a lot
48:16of hard work
48:16that we did for Vulcan.
48:20If we're sending
48:22now the leaders
48:24which Vulcan captured,
48:26we're sending them
48:26back to El Salvador,
48:28we no longer get access
48:29to that wealth
48:30of information,
48:31that intelligence,
48:33those networks,
48:34finding out how it worked.
48:36And my concerns were
48:38the other Vulcan captures,
48:40the other MS-13
48:41leaders that are still
48:42here in the United States.
48:43I'm afraid that they'll
48:45end up on a plane
48:45and end up going back too.
48:48After Greñas
48:49was sent back,
48:50a federal judge
48:51blocked for now
48:52the administration's
48:54effort to release
48:55another MS-13 leader
48:56captured by Vulcan.
48:58The fates of Crook
49:00and the other men
49:01Bukele requested
49:02be released
49:02remain unclear.
49:04I think that
49:05this is
49:07still a very hot issue
49:09for Mr. Bukele
49:10because
49:11Mr. Trump
49:12is not going to be there
49:13forever.
49:15A new administration
49:15can come
49:16that doesn't see
49:17these kind of agreements
49:18with very good eyes
49:19and the gang members
49:20still have the possibility
49:22of testifying
49:23the details
49:23of their path
49:24with Mr. Bukele.
49:27President Nayib Bukele's
49:29state of exception
49:30is still in place.
49:39More than 90,000
49:41people have been
49:41arrested,
49:42many still awaiting
49:44trial.
49:56Bukele has also
49:57taken a hard line
49:58on journalists
49:59like those
50:00at El Faro
50:00who first began
50:02reporting on his
50:03dealings with the gangs.
50:17While at a journalism
50:18conference in Costa Rica,
50:21the Martinez brothers
50:22and colleagues
50:23were warned
50:24they could be arrested
50:25if they returned
50:26to El Salvador.
50:33Well, miren,
50:35nosotros
50:35ya habÃamos
50:35tomado la decisión
50:36de adentrar
50:37esta tarde
50:38a El Salvador.
50:39Pero al cerrar
50:40el foro centroamericano
50:41de periodismo
50:42después del último evento,
50:43un oficial
50:44de una embajada
50:45importante
50:46nos aseguró
50:47que dos fuentes
50:48distintas
50:48le aseguraron
50:50que habÃa
50:50un despliegue policial
50:51desde anoche
50:52en el aeropuerto
50:52para capturarlos.
50:58Todos andamos grises
50:59ahora
51:01porque todos
51:02estamos cayendo
51:03en cuenta
51:03que en este mismo
51:04momento
51:05que estoy hablando
51:05con vos
51:06está comenzando
51:07mi exilio
51:08definitivo
51:09del paÃs
51:09y probablemente
51:11el de todos
51:12mis colegas
51:12del periódico.
51:15Y esa es una
51:16que cuesta
51:17aceptarla
51:18porque
51:25porque
51:25porque en mi cabeza
51:27y en la de todos
51:28pues
51:29los que Ãbamos
51:30a volar ahora
51:32hoy en la noche
51:32Ãbamos a estar
51:33con nuestras familias
51:34o en la casa
51:35o en
51:38y la cosa
51:39es caer en cuenta
51:40de que eso
51:41se acabó.
51:44Nadie se despierta
51:46digo
51:46preparado
51:47para
51:48asumirse
51:48un exiliado
51:49y asumir
51:51que muy probablemente
51:53volverás a ver
51:54tu paÃs
51:54siendo un viejo.
51:57Yo creo
51:58que siempre
51:58voy a creer
51:59que es valioso
52:00que la gente
52:00en lugar de no saber
52:01sepa.
52:02No traigo
52:03buenas noticias
52:05no son tiempos
52:06luminosos
52:06ni prósperos
52:08para el periodismo
52:09centroamericano
52:10las cosas
52:11han empeorado.
52:13Vamos a seguir
52:14revelando
52:15vamos a seguir
52:16descubriendo
52:16y yo estoy
52:17convencido
52:18espero no ser
52:20naif en esto
52:21de que dentro
52:22de algún tiempo
52:23voy a poder
52:23volver a mi paÃs
52:24a seguir haciendo
52:26lo que hago
52:26que es periodismo.
52:34Go to
52:35pbs.org
52:36slash frontline
52:37for more reporting
52:38from our partners
52:39at Alfaro
52:40There was a pact
52:42between Bukele
52:43and the gangs
52:43that is the main
52:44reason behind
52:45the huge drop
52:46in homicide rate.
52:48And for more
52:49of our coverage
52:50of the region
52:51see more
52:52about threats
52:53to journalism
52:54around the world
52:55connect with
52:56frontline
52:56on Facebook
52:57and Instagram
52:57and stream
52:58anytime
52:59on the
52:59pbs app
53:00youtube
53:01or pbs.org
53:02slash frontline
53:30online.
53:32For more on this and other Frontline programs, visit our website at pbs.org slash Frontline.
53:55Frontline's The Deal is available on Amazon Prime Video.
54:23Frontline is available on Amazon Prime Video.
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