Report: El Salvador in talks with gangs

• Those past backdoor deals were also controversial because they were seen as a capitulation to criminal groups, and the officials involved were prosecuted under Salvadoran laws for illicit association with gang members.
• Bukele’s purported talks with the gangs started after his election in mid-2019. In exchange for less bloodletting, gang members were supposedly granted benefits like job opportunities, microfinancing, or getting fast food in jail.
• While murders have gone down, forced disappearances and kidnappings attributed to gangs have risen.

Flashback: Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Barrio 18 Sureños and Barrio 18 Revolucionarios were originally formed in California in the 1990s.

• Gang members were returned to El Salvador in keeping with U.S. policy to deport immigrants convicted of crimes, and there they have routinely committed crimes like extortion, assault, kidnapping and murder.
• The violence is one of the reasons thousands of people have fled to seek asylum in the U.S.

The other side: Bukele dismissed the El Faro report on Twitter, but did not confirm nor deny the documents and photographs cited.

• His government claims the reduction in violence is instead due to a crackdown.

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