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Frontline S44E03 The Deal Trump Bukele and the Gangs of El Salvador
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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 called,
01:06murder capital 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
01:58affiliations and concerns about harsh treatment, both 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 than what Bukele was doing.
02:14Over the past year, Frontline and reporters from the El Salvador news outlet El Faro have
02:20been investigating what was behind the controversial deal.
02:27And what Bukele stood to gain.
02:30All you know about him is his propaganda.
02:34The truth is quite different from what he says.
02:37In this image, recognize who is captured.
02:42Bukele wants us to be arrested for having revealed something that he hurt.
02:47Dreaming this silentening of the human being is a
03:00perilous statement.
03:04But the reality is que Bukele is trying to cover his own history.
03:08He needs to help the United States to help his past.
03:12And that story we have not been told yet.
03:41This program contains graphic imagery. Viewer 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
04:26.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
04:47team 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.
05:29And I think it will because, you know, President Trump is very nice and cool and nice and cool too.
05:38Thank 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.
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.
06:19I had never seen what happened in 2015.
06:22That was worse than an open war.
06:28The streets were full of corpses.
06:31The beds in El Salvador didn't give up.
06:35At the peak of the violence in 2015, El Salvador had the highest murder rate in the world.
06:42Yay!
06:43The brutal MS-13 gang was battling its rival, Barrio 18.
06:48One 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 came to the mayor of the capital, the country was probably one of the most violent moments in
07:07his history.
07:08It's not easy 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 where 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.
07:51He came.
07:53That talk in which he spoke was moderated by Carlos Martinez, one of our reporters.
08:15He focused on revitalizing the city center.
08:19He focused on revitalizing the city center.
08:29Crime and violence there dropped.
08:32Bukele's popularity rose.
08:39And in 2019, after just one term as mayor, he ran for president.
08:47The first thing that made Bukele was to present himself as an outsider.
08:51He was going to break with that corrupt past that had been administrated by the democracy in El Salvador from
08:57the Civil War.
08:58And it was a speech that the salvadoreans were dying.
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 bought it.
09:15He took more votes than the rest of the parties together.
09:20Ciudadanos Nayib Armando Bukele Ortiz.
09:24Quedáis en posesión del cargo de presidente constitucional de la República de El Salvador.
09:34The people voted for Bukele in 2019 because they were full of other electoral offers.
09:39They had to be crazy to continue voting for those political parties.
09:44They had not only become one of the most homicidized 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.
10:11We're going to make it worth the state where the state should be.
10:15We're going to control the territories where the gang's more money is going to be.
10:21He 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, who had committed graft,
10:49and who had been shown to actually be negotiating with the leaders of the powerful street gangs that ruled much
10:56of 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.
11:13But 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, over 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.
11:39We 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 without something tricky going on.
11:52As the El Faro reporters started investigating,
11:56another investigation was taking place that would eventually help shed light on what was behind Bukele's crackdown.
12:06In the U.S., federal authorities were fighting their own campaign against MS-13, which had taken root in many
12:13American 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. It's based in El Salvador.
12:26It 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.
12:50You had a quadruple homicide on Long Island.
12:52You have homicides in New Jersey, in Virginia, Maryland.
12:57This 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. This U.S. attorney said,
13:29hey, 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.
14:05They'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,
14:17many of whom had been thrown in prison there.
14:21Taking out the leadership in El Salvador and bringing them to the United States
14:25changes the entire dynamic of the organization.
14:29There's leaders on the streets, and then there's leaders in jail.
14:33We wanted them both.
14:35Thank you very much.
14:36Our goal was to get them out of those jails, into U.S. jails, cutting the head off the snake.
14:43Over the next year, Bruner and other agents worked with investigators in El Salvador
14:48to build cases to extradite the jailed 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,
15:03including political corruption, including their influence in government activities.
15:12Task Force Vulcan's investigation would soon intersect with El Faro's reporting.
15:18I met Vulcan agents who were involved in El Salvador in the persecution of the pandillas.
15:25And that people were very interested in my knowledge of the pandillas
15:30and the baggage they had, investigating this phenomenon.
15:35And as soon as the time passed, we talked about different sources.
15:41And in the U.S. embassy, we talked about the agents of Vulcan, with my sources.
15:48One day, a source of the U.S. embassy,
15:53says,
15:55I think I have something that interests you.
15:58I need to collect this afternoon.
16:00But that afternoon I couldn't.
16:02So I called my brother to me,
16:04and I said,
16:04look,
16:04Oscar,
16:06you can move on to where the fuente is.
16:16I came to where the fuente is.
16:17I came to where the fuente is,
16:17in a luxury of luxury.
16:20And in the street,
16:21I gave him a luxury of Manila.
16:23And since I came out of that luxury,
16:25I noticed that I was following a car.
16:27We were accustomed to that the intelligence of the state of El Salvador
16:31would always follow us.
16:33I do several turns in the redondel
16:35to remove the following,
16:36and I remove it,
16:37and I go.
16:39When I came to the house and opened the table,
16:40I couldn't believe it.
16:41I felt like a ray of the body crossed me.
16:48Inside the envelope were surprising details about how Bukele had been getting his results.
16:56There were hundreds of pages of evidence
16:59from the cases of El Salvador
17:03that the government of Bukele was negotiating with the Mara Salvatrucha.
17:08Documentos of the government of Bukele,
17:10that revealed,
17:12that explained,
17:13that detailed and that named who was entering the cases
17:17to maintain a pact
17:18with the leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha 13.
17:24The next day, I received a call from that source
17:26telling me,
17:28through a third person,
17:30that he would not be able to contact him again.
17:32That my phone was pinched
17:34and that, apparently,
17:35he had a follow-up.
17:37That is to do an investigation
17:38under a lot of pressure.
17:40The documents included prison records
17:42showing dozens of covert meetings
17:44between government officials and gang leaders since 2019,
17:49as well as intelligence reports
17:50and correspondences detailing deals
17:53for the reduction in homicides,
17:56political support,
17:57and prison privileges.
17:59There was a pact between Bukele and the gangs.
18:02That is the main reason behind
18:04the huge drop in homicide rates.
18:08It was also an electoral pact.
18:12Part of the deal was
18:14to control the inhabitants of the communities,
18:17the gangs controlled,
18:19to vote for Mr. Bukele.
18:21The gangs guaranteed Mr. Bukele
18:24that Salvadorans would vote for him
18:26in exchange of some benefits.
18:32In the prison log books,
18:34the reporters also found the name of Bukele's
18:37close aide,
18:38Carlos MarroquÃn.
18:41Carlos MarroquÃn is the director
18:44of an institution called Social Tissue,
18:47which, on paper, this is the institution
18:50in charge of reconstructing the broken tissue
18:54of these communities
18:55that were submerged by violence.
18:58Carlos MarroquÃn,
19:00this is what our reporting tells us,
19:03has been one of the main links between Mr. Bukele
19:07and the gangs.
19:10He is the liaison with the gangs.
19:15To verify the documents,
19:16we found sources of penitentiaries
19:19that confirmate the ingress,
19:21the custody,
19:22we, we have documents to verify
19:25their authenticity.
19:27We found sources of the bandit
19:29that confirm these types of negotiations.
19:31In September 2020 we published, the government of Bukele has more than a year negociating with the Mara Salvatrucha 13,
19:39support electoral and reduction of suicidios.
19:46The night that we published that material, we had thousands of thousands of lectures.
19:52After that publication, Bukele reaccionó iracundo.
19:56So, what do we believe? That the Faro mented. Where? In his article and in those supposed documents, which are
20:02not official documents, which are not official documents, which are false documents.
20:07He accused us of being mentirosos, of working for the political opposition. He accused us of a lot of things.
20:15And you can see that the Faro mented. And I can tell you one thing, the Faro has not allowed
20:19to approve one of its accelerations, but the people of Salveño, who knows what matters, I ask you, if they
20:23mented here, what they are saying here, what they are saying the truth?
20:27The documents and El Faro reports contradicted what Bukele had been saying publicly, and to the international media, about his
20:35contacts with the gangs.
20:38Would you ever negotiate with them?
20:40No.
20:40No.
20:40Why not?
20:41Well, because you're giving them, you're giving them legitimacy.
20:45Neither Bukele nor MarroquÃn nor anyone from the administration would agree to an interview for this film. On local TV,
20:54Carlos MarroquÃn brushed off El Faro's reporting.
21:06But 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, including to help him get elected
21:21mayor of San Salvador.
21:23My name is Carlos Cartagena.
21:26My name is Carlos Cartagena.
21:27Well, everyone calls me Charlie.
21:32Charlie, Carlos Cartagena, is one of the most famous pandilleros of El Salvador from the past.
21:39They asked us the support of our people, of our communities, of our colonies,
21:46to be able to choose to choose him, right, as the alcalde.
21:52How much money they gave gave him?
21:54They gave him a quarter of a million.
21:58So, for you?
21:59No, that was repartible.
22:01That was repartible between the two families, right?
22:03The party of Nayib Bukele in that time, the FMLN,
22:08paid, according Charlie told us,
22:10to obligate the population under his control
22:12to vote for Nayib Bukele for alcalde of San Salvador
22:15and for the presidential candidate of that party.
22:21In addition to interview Charlie,
22:23we interviewed another leader of the 18 bar, Lineman.
22:28He only asked us to not reveal his real name
22:31or his face, because he thinks that in his current circumstances,
22:35where he is, that could affect him.
22:39The two gang leaders told El Faro
22:41that after Bukele became president in 2019,
22:45they were allowed to hold meetings for their leaders in prisons.
23:01They didn't want to go in or leave.
23:05El Faro reporters showed one of the gang leaders
23:08pictures they'd obtained of masked men entering the prison.
23:13In this image, do you recognize who is captured?
23:17This is MarroquÃn.
23:18He is Carlos MarroquÃn?
23:20Yes.
23:22In this image, if I can expand it,
23:25do you recognize these characters?
23:27Of course.
23:28This is me.
23:31The gang leaders confirmed that their pact with Bukele
23:34and his associates, like MarroquÃn,
23:37included agreements to reduce homicides.
23:41What was the agreement with Bukele about assassinations?
23:46Well, it was to prevent them, then.
23:48But how could you castigate the people who violate that type of agreement?
23:52If you did something that you didn't do,
24:13the gang leaders said, MarroquÃn had given advice on how to keep it off the radar.
24:18I don't want to tell you that there was a homicide, but he said with MarroquÃn,
24:24if you do something without body, there's no crime.
24:29That's all I tell you.
24:30Without body, there's no crime.
24:32El Faro reporters repeatedly tried to talk to MarroquÃn, but he didn't respond to them.
24:39When Bukele sustained this pact with the gangs, he told all the Salvadoran population that the
24:46violence had reduced because of the efficiency of his security plan.
24:51Well, that was not true.
24:54Not long after El Faro published its story about Bukele's relationship with the gangs,
25:00prosecutors in the U.S. filed an indictment against MS-13 leaders on narco-terrorism charges,
25:06alleging they directed the gangs 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
25:41world, that we want to rid MS-13, getting them out of the equation. So we thought that it would
25:47work in our favor. But then events in El Salvador would complicate the effort.
25:53The United States has expressed concern after El Salvador's National Assembly dismissed
25:58the Attorney General and 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
26:08working with Bruner and Task Force Vulcan, including the country's Attorney General,
26:13who himself was investigating Bukele's ties to gangs. They also replaced key judges with Bukele
26:21loyalists on the nation's top court, which has the final say in approving extraditions.
26:28When Bukele changed the structure of the Supreme Court, that's really where it changed the entire
26:36relationship with Vulcan and with how we would get our results. We knew that the door was pretty much
26:45shut from getting anybody out of El Salvador. ProPublica reporters T. Christian Miller and Sebastian Rotella
26:53have written about the fight over the extraditions and 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, who were telling us that the El Salvador and Supreme Court justices were receiving calls from
27:14Bukele's office essentially 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
27:29deals that previous governments had cut. And what the gangs asked for is very insistently is protection
27:35from extradition. Bukele's government insisted the gang leaders needed to first face justice
27:42in their own country. But in Washington, where President Biden was now in office,
27:48there was growing tension with Bukele. He stalled or completely killed at least a dozen extradition
27:55requests. And that was something that was concerning for us. Juan Gonzalez was one of Biden's senior
28:01advisors on El Salvador. He 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,
28:23including Carlos MarroquÃn, 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,
28:40over a lot of things. And one of the main sort of points of contention is this extradition request
28:47for one of the top people in MS-13, which is Elmer Canales Rivera, also known as Krug.
28:53There's an extradition notice for him. There's an Interpol Red notice for him.
28:57Elmer Canales Rivera was one of the imprisoned gang leaders named in the documents obtained by
29:03Alfaro, as having helped make the pact between MS-13 and the Bukele government.
29:09Krug is fundador de la cúpula de la Mara Salvatrucha 13 en El Salvador,
29:14que se conoce como La Ranfla.
29:18Krug era uno de los lÃderes más violentos de la Mara Salvatrucha 13. Alguien que se jactaba de
29:24haber 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, Krug, 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. Entonces, aunque le pusiera un
30:10osito a la cara de Krug, sabÃamos que era él.
30:16Cruzó a Guatemala y comió en un restaurante cerca de la frontera. Logramos comprobar gracias al
30:22menú que estaba sobre la mesa en qué restaurante de Guatemala pasó comiéndose un cóctel de camarones.
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
31:01mi lealtad y confianza. Pues 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 que llevó a un pandillero,
31:14miembro de la cúpula de la Mara Salvatrucha, y lo liberó en Guatemala, a sabiendas de que
31:20debÃa 40 años en El Salvador, y a sabiendas de que el gobierno de los Estados Unidos lo
31:27estaba requiriendo en extradición.
31:33El 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.
31:44Si este hombre estaba preso, ¿cómo quedó libre? ¿Quién lo ayudó? ¿Está el audio de Carlos MarroquÃn
31:50diciendo que lo llevó a Guatemala?
31:51Bueno, ellos dicen que es el audio de él. Yo te digo, a mÃ...
31:54Aún no entendemos exactamente por qué Bukele liberó a Krug. Tenemos una hipótesis.
32:01Y la hipótesis es que liberó a Krug para que controlara las ansiedades de las estructuras
32:07en las calles y les ordenara mantener el pacto de reducir los homicidios. Pero si esa era
32:13la misión de Krug, la misión de Krug falló rotundamente.
32:18Por 2022, gang violence was flaring again in El Salvador.
32:24Ese pacto tuvo sus altibajos. Porque cuando las pandillas se sentÃan por alguna razón incómodas
32:32o pensaban que el pacto no avanzaba como querÃan, mataban. Esa era su moneda de cambio,
32:37la muerte. Siempre lo fue.
32:40It reached a boiling point. Over one weekend, after the gang claimed some of its members,
32:46who they believed should have been protected by their deal with the Bukele government,
32:50were arrested.
32:53Murieron 87 personas en un solo fin de semana, sin ton ni son.
32:59La 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 poguerra salvadoreña.
33:22Era la mala salvatrucha intentando enviar un mensaje al gobierno diciendo,
33:25nosotros podemos subir y podemos bajar los asesinatos a voluntad.
33:32Amid 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
33:44he had relayed the ultimatum to Bukele, who he referred to as Batman.
33:49Hoy dÃa le tiré a Batman que hay 72 horas para dar una respuesta.
33:54Él no se lo tomó a bien, se lo tomó a mal, como que han viendo que no me anden
33:57amenazando y no se que va.
34:01Entonces la onda está en que lo que Batman me dijo,
34:04vamos a ver cómo se reacciona en las próximas horas y yo te aviso si nos reunimos mañana.
34:10Y Bukele, que hay que reconocer que a muchas cosas reacciona rápidamente,
34:16decide convocar a su asamblea legislativa que él ya controlaba plenamente
34:21y ordenarles que establezca un régimen de excepción.
34:26Y entonces termina el pacto.
34:28Esta noche me estoy sumando para poder dar nuestro voto a este régimen de excepción.
34:35Esos terroristas, esos criminales van a pagar las consecuencias.
34:42Queda aprobado el proyecto de decreto que contienen régimen de excepción.
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.
35:23Y a inocentes, a un montón.
35:27He sent the police and the army to carry on massive incarcerations.
35:34So police officers needed to fulfill quotas of arrested people without a judicial order.
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.
35:57Sin pedirle permiso a nadie, sin negociar con nadie, sin avisarle a nadie.
36:02Y 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?
36:13La 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.
36:48Some 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.
37:47Please 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
38:42that 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
38:53the number of public murders in 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
39:05continued to authorize murders
39:07where the victims' bodies were buried or 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 since,
39:31as far as I can remember.
39:34If it were known
39:35that Bukele portraying himself
39:38as a law and order candidate
39:39was 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.
41:06According 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
41:21broke 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
41:47de que el gobierno de Naip 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,
42:12amid 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., Tucker Carlson,
42:44all of these people who are so essential
42:47to kind of crafting the 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?
42:55Well, 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 with the Trump Republicans.
43:11Let's make America and El Salvador great again.
43:13And that bet pays off
43:15because Trump is re-elected.
43:18Thank you very much, everybody.
43:19Well...
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 in the United States.
43:29We will begin the process
43:31of returning millions and millions
43:33of criminal aliens
43:35back to the places from which they came.
43:38Trump's promised a closed border
43:40and mass deportations.
43:41Many are wondering what steps
43:43will he take to make good on his word.
43:46Within weeks of 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 through Central America
43:59to gain support
44:00for the administration's immigration efforts.
44:02He stopped in El Salvador to 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 traveled with Rubio
44:16to El Salvador.
44:19Bukele made an extraordinary offer.
44:22He said he was willing to use
44:24his mega prison, Sukkot,
44:26to house almost anyone
44:28that the United States wanted
44:29to deport to El Salvador.
44:31He has agreed to accept for deportation
44:36any illegal alien in the United States
44:38who is a criminal
44:39from any nationality,
44:41be they MS-13 or Tren d'Aragua,
44:43and house them in his jails.
44:45The Trump administration
44:46jumped at the offer.
44:48But Bukele wanted something, too.
44:50The return to El Salvador
44:52of nine indicted MS-13 leaders
44:55in U.S. custody,
44:57including the gang leader
44:58turned informant, Crook.
45:02Rubio is trying to seal the deal,
45:04and he mentions that he is under pressure
45:06from the president.
45:08Bukele, at this moment,
45:09has maximum leverage
45:10over the United States,
45:11and he says to Marco Rubio,
45:14I need nine MS-13 members
45:16in U.S. custody
45:17in order for this deal to take place.
45:19You need to give me your word
45:21that I'm going to get these nine men.
45:25Rubio then says to Bukele,
45:27you 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 government,
45:35and as informants,
45:36they enjoyed protective status.
45:40According to officials
45:41familiar with these conversations,
45:43Rubio is promising him
45:45the United States will do this deal.
45:47He will get his men,
45:49but it is going to take
45:50a little bit of time.
45:52On March 16th,
45:54plane loads of deportees
45:55from the U.S. began arriving
45:57in El Salvador.
45:59The Trump administration
46:00deported more than 200
46:02Venezuelan migrants
46:03from the U.S. to El Salvador.
46:05El Salvadoran President
46:06Nayib Bukele posted a video on X
46:09showing them arriving
46:10and being taken into custody,
46:11placed in a notorious
46:13high-security prison.
46:15President Trump
46:16had gotten what he wanted,
46:17and among the mostly
46:19Venezuelan men
46:20being ushered into Ciccat
46:22was a sign
46:23Bukele was starting
46:24to get what he wanted, too.
46:26When the first three flights
46:28arrived,
46:29with the Venezuelans
46:30deportees,
46:31the salvadoreans
46:32who have covered
46:33pandillas
46:34since the years
46:34have been
46:35been inundated
46:36when we saw
46:38that one of those
46:38men incaved
46:39was César Humberto Larios,
46:43Greñas.
46:45Greñas was a founding member
46:47of the MS-13 leadership,
46:49and 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
47:11sent 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
47:21and to hide information
47:22about the secret negotiations
47:24he had had
47:25with gangs
47:25in his country.
47:26He wants them back
47:27to El Salvador
47:28to silence
47:29in an eventual trial
47:31where his name
47:33appears
47:34linked to the Mara Salvatrucha.
47:37After Greñas' return,
47:40Bukele said
47:40it would help
47:41El Salvador
47:42finalize
47:42intelligence gathering
47:44and go after
47:45the last remnants
47:46of MS-13.
47:49No one
47:49from the Trump administration
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.
47:58You couldn't even
47:59live in El Salvador.
48:00You couldn't walk
48:01the streets
48:01of El Salvador.
48:02Now it's one
48:02of the safest countries
48:03in 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?
48:13I was sad.
48:14I'm sad
48:15because I knew
48:15that was a lot
48:16of hard work
48:16that we did
48:18for 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
48:29get access
48:30to that wealth
48:30of information,
48:31that intelligence,
48:33those networks,
48:34finding out
48:34how it worked.
48:36And my concerns
48:37were the other
48:39Vulcan captures,
48:40the other MS-13 leaders
48:41that are still here
48:42in the United States
48:43because I'm afraid
48:44that they'll end up
48:45on a plane
48:45and end up
48:46going back too.
48:48After Greñas
48:49was sent back,
48:50a federal judge
48:51blocked for now
48:53the 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 this is
49:07still a very hot issue
49:09for Mr. Bukele
49:10because Mr. 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 the 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 people
49:41have been arrested,
49:43many still awaiting trial.
49:56Bukele has also taken
49:57a hard line on journalists
49:59like those at El Faro
50:00who first began reporting
50:02on his dealings
50:03with the gangs.
50:17While at a journalism
50:19conference 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 ya 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 momento
51:05que estoy hablando
51:06con vos
51:06está comenzando
51:07mi exilio
51:08definitivo del 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 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...
51:37y la cosa
51:39es caer en cuenta
51:40de que eso
51:41se acabó.
51:45Nadie se despierta
51:46digo preparado
51:47para asumirse
51:48un exiliado
51:49y asumir
51:51que muy probablemente
51:53volverás a ver
51:54tu paÃs
51:54siendo un viejo.
51:57Yo creo que siempre
51:58voy a creer
51:59que es valioso
52:00que la gente
52:00en lugar de no saber
52:01sepa.
52:02No traigo buenas noticias
52:05no son tiempos
52:06luminosos
52:07ni 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
52:27que es periodismo.
52:28y yo estoy
52:35pbs.org
52:36frontline
52:37para más
52:38reportes
52:39de nuestros
52:39partners
52:39en Alfaro
52:40hay un pacto
52:42entre
52:42Bukele
52:43y el
52:43la
52:43que es
52:44el principal
52:44por la
52:45la gran
52:46drop
52:46en homicidio
52:47y
52:48para más
52:49de la
52:49región
52:51de
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