El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele on Saturday shared images of gang members in a mega-prison to discredit statements made by two leaders of the Quarter 18 gang to the digital newspaper The Lighthouse about an alleged deal that helped him rise to power in 2019. “Bukele made a pact with the gangs,” the president wrote ironically on the social media platform X, alongside a video showing handcuffed gang members entering the maximum-security prison, the Center for Confinement of Terrorism (Cecot), which has a capacity for 40,000 inmates.
A week ago, Carlos Cartagena, alias “Charli,” and another leader identified as Liro Man from the Revolutionary faction of Quarter 18, told The Lighthouse details of the alleged negotiation that helped Bukele attain power. Cartagena told the newspaper that the gangs negotiated through two of Bukele’s associates—who were sanctioned by Washington—for support to help him become elder of San Savior from 2015 to 2018, and then president in 2019.
The interviews follow up on El Faro‘s 2020 investigation, which alleged a deal between Bukele and the gangs to reduce homicides—an accusation Bukele denies. With the caption “the pact,” the video published by Bukele also includes a graphic showing how The Savior went from being the most violent Not-was country in the world to one of the safest in 2024, with 1.9 homicides for100,000 inhabitants.
Liro Man claimed that the contacts were made by Carlos Marroquín, director of the government’s “Social Fabric” program, and Osiris Moon Deputy Minister of Justice and Director General of The Salvador’s Prison System. Both Marroquin and Moon were sanctioned by the United States in 2021 during Joe Biden’s administration, which accused them of participating in covert negotiations with leaders of the MS-13 and Quarter 18 gangs.
El Salvador’s Vice President Félix Ulloa denied in an interview with the French magazine The Great Continent that any “negotiation” with gangs is a government policy under Bukele, calling the incidents “isolated cases.” “In the case of The Savior since 2019, President Bukele has never authorized any kind of negotiation with gangs. Some press reports claim that certain officials have negotiated, but these are isolated actions. This is not a policy, not a government policy,” Ulloa said.
After the interviews were published, El Faro reported that The Salvador’s Attorney General’s Office was preparing to arrest its journalists for publishing them. The Association of Journalists of El Salvador (APES) requested information from the Attorney General’s Office regarding the case. There has been no response.
