The truce between gangs and the government in El Salvador has been broken

[PSOL]

https://apnews.com/article/nayib-bukele-el-salvador-san-gangs-00654a76350681707a43a937c6ff3c1a

President Nayib Bukele asked El Salvador’s congress Sunday to extend an anti-gang emergency decree for another 30 days.

Bukele has used the emergency powers to round up about 16,000 suspected gang members, following a spate of murders in March.

Rights groups have criticized the measures, saying arrests are often arbitrary, based on a person’s appearance or where they live.

What caused the agreement to break down?

[CumbrianLefty]

Gangs will be gangs, I suppose.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Critical support to Nayib Bukele against the gangs (not that he's a great leader).

[PSOL]

I’m interested exactly what caused the deal to fall through like this

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I’m interested exactly what caused the deal to fall through like this

Me as well.
Unfortunately, we might never know.

[PSOL]

I’m interested exactly what caused the deal to fall through like this

Me as well.
Unfortunately, we might never know.

Hash might get some ideas from Spanish Twitter

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I’m interested exactly what caused the deal to fall through like this

Me as well.
Unfortunately, we might never know.

Hash might get some ideas from Spanish Twitter

Potentially.
Let's hope for the best.

[Sir John Johns]

If this can help, this is what InSight Crime has written about the late March killing spree (87 homicides in 72 hours):

According to analysts, these brief spikes typically occur when there is a rupture in negotiations between the government and the gangs, with the gangs using bodies as bargaining chips.

"The gangs use their ability to alter the levels of violence as leverage to press the government into meeting certain demands," said Tiziano Breda, Central American Analyst for the International Crisis Group.

But the "gangs don't appear to be interested in disrupting the whole process," he told InSight Crime. Rather, they are just interested "in making adjustments to it."

"We shouldn't see it as the start of a war, but rather a cry for attention," said Juan Martínez d'Aubuisson, a Salvadoran anthropologist and gang expert, adding that the gangs are likely using the killings to express discontent with secret government negotiations.

Martínez also said dissent within the MS13 rank and file may be behind the murder spike. While the gang has long used homicides to demand preferential treatment from the government, the benefits have largely remained with imprisoned gang leaders. Now, according to Martínez, low-level gang members may be using the same strategy to show their leaders they are unhappy with the negotiations.

"[The leaders] may be getting a taste of their own medicine," said Martínez.

Critical support to Nayib Bukele against the gangs (not that he's a great leader).

So in another thread you expressed your opposition to the seizing of assets belonging to Russian oligarchs, but here you are supporting stuff like that?

A law passed on April 5 allows criminal charges against anyone who “participates in the creation, assists or creates” any type of publication, image, graffiti or other form of visual expression that “explicitly or implicitly” transmits “messages” about or that “alludes to” the various types of gangs. The penalty is up to 15 years in prison. The law similarly allows criminal charges against media outlets that “reproduce or transmit messages or statements created or allegedly created” by gangs that “could generate a state of anxiety and panic to the population in general.”

These overbroad provisions could easily be used to target critics and journalists, Human Rights Watch said.

On March 30, the Legislative Assembly lowered the age of criminal responsibility for children accused of the existing crime of belonging to “terrorist groups or any other criminal gang,” from 16 years to 12. The new legislation allows prison sentences of up to 10 years for children ages 12 to 16 and of up to 20 years for children over 16. Salvadoran law establishes that children have a right not to be held in adult detention sites.

The amendments also dramatically increase sentences for gang membership, which can be prosecuted as terrorism in El Salvador.

Since 2016, El Salvador has broadly defined “terrorist groups” to include those that use “violent or inhumane methods with the express purpose of instilling terror, insecurity, or alarm within the population,” or to “assume the exercise of powers that belong to the sovereignty of the states or systematically affect the fundamental rights of the population or part of it.”

The new legislation’s extremely harsh penalties could lead to disproportionate punishment, Human Rights Watch said. Those convicted of leading a “terrorist” gang now face 40 to 45 years in prison, up from 14 years. Membership in these groups now carries a sentence of 20 to 30 years, up from 3 to 5.

Prison terms for supporting gangs are now 20 to 30 years, up from 3 to 6. Under Salvadoran law, the definition of support for an illegal group includes not only someone who “promotes, helps, facilitates or favors the creation or presence” of the group but also anyone who, knowing that these groups are unlawful, “receives direct or indirect benefit” by having relations “of any nature” with them “even without being a part of them.” Such a definition could be used to charge family members, lawyers, journalists, and civil society members, Human Rights Watch said.

In a tweet, President Bukele accused journalists, nongovernmental organizations, judges, and politicians who criticized his policies of “defending” gangs and using them as their “armed wing.” A pro-Bukele lawmaker followed up by tweeting that “thanks to the [legal] reforms, all of them will now be regarded as ‘terrorist groups’ for their links to criminal groups.”

The changes open the door to further congesting the country’s prisons, which, as of December 2020, were 136 percent over capacity, with some holding more than six times the maximum number of prisoners allowed.

This is paving the way for arresting and prosecuting people under vague and loosely defined charges and silencing political opponents, journalists and critics (I notice the abuse of ‘anti-terrorist’ legislation to put people in jail for alleged or real crimes that have actually nothing to do with terrorism, a tactic already used by the Latin American military dictatorships in the 1970s) while doing nothing to solve the gang problem.

Of course, the cynical in me is asking himself whether the anti-gang legislation hadn’t been passed mostly to consolidate Bukele’s grip on power (after having taking over the judicial power just few months ago) and if the biggest gang in El Salvador wasn’t his own government.

[coloradocowboi]

If this can help, this is what InSight Crime has written about the late March killing spree (87 homicides in 72 hours):

According to analysts, these brief spikes typically occur when there is a rupture in negotiations between the government and the gangs, with the gangs using bodies as bargaining chips.

"The gangs use their ability to alter the levels of violence as leverage to press the government into meeting certain demands," said Tiziano Breda, Central American Analyst for the International Crisis Group.

But the "gangs don't appear to be interested in disrupting the whole process," he told InSight Crime. Rather, they are just interested "in making adjustments to it."

"We shouldn't see it as the start of a war, but rather a cry for attention," said Juan Martínez d'Aubuisson, a Salvadoran anthropologist and gang expert, adding that the gangs are likely using the killings to express discontent with secret government negotiations.

Martínez also said dissent within the MS13 rank and file may be behind the murder spike. While the gang has long used homicides to demand preferential treatment from the government, the benefits have largely remained with imprisoned gang leaders. Now, according to Martínez, low-level gang members may be using the same strategy to show their leaders they are unhappy with the negotiations.

"[The leaders] may be getting a taste of their own medicine," said Martínez.

Critical support to Nayib Bukele against the gangs (not that he's a great leader).

So in another thread you expressed your opposition to the seizing of assets belonging to Russian oligarchs, but here you are supporting stuff like that?

A law passed on April 5 allows criminal charges against anyone who “participates in the creation, assists or creates” any type of publication, image, graffiti or other form of visual expression that “explicitly or implicitly” transmits “messages” about or that “alludes to” the various types of gangs. The penalty is up to 15 years in prison. The law similarly allows criminal charges against media outlets that “reproduce or transmit messages or statements created or allegedly created” by gangs that “could generate a state of anxiety and panic to the population in general.”

These overbroad provisions could easily be used to target critics and journalists, Human Rights Watch said.

On March 30, the Legislative Assembly lowered the age of criminal responsibility for children accused of the existing crime of belonging to “terrorist groups or any other criminal gang,” from 16 years to 12. The new legislation allows prison sentences of up to 10 years for children ages 12 to 16 and of up to 20 years for children over 16. Salvadoran law establishes that children have a right not to be held in adult detention sites.

The amendments also dramatically increase sentences for gang membership, which can be prosecuted as terrorism in El Salvador.

Since 2016, El Salvador has broadly defined “terrorist groups” to include those that use “violent or inhumane methods with the express purpose of instilling terror, insecurity, or alarm within the population,” or to “assume the exercise of powers that belong to the sovereignty of the states or systematically affect the fundamental rights of the population or part of it.”

The new legislation’s extremely harsh penalties could lead to disproportionate punishment, Human Rights Watch said. Those convicted of leading a “terrorist” gang now face 40 to 45 years in prison, up from 14 years. Membership in these groups now carries a sentence of 20 to 30 years, up from 3 to 5.

Prison terms for supporting gangs are now 20 to 30 years, up from 3 to 6. Under Salvadoran law, the definition of support for an illegal group includes not only someone who “promotes, helps, facilitates or favors the creation or presence” of the group but also anyone who, knowing that these groups are unlawful, “receives direct or indirect benefit” by having relations “of any nature” with them “even without being a part of them.” Such a definition could be used to charge family members, lawyers, journalists, and civil society members, Human Rights Watch said.

In a tweet, President Bukele accused journalists, nongovernmental organizations, judges, and politicians who criticized his policies of “defending” gangs and using them as their “armed wing.” A pro-Bukele lawmaker followed up by tweeting that “thanks to the [legal] reforms, all of them will now be regarded as ‘terrorist groups’ for their links to criminal groups.”

The changes open the door to further congesting the country’s prisons, which, as of December 2020, were 136 percent over capacity, with some holding more than six times the maximum number of prisoners allowed.

This is paving the way for arresting and prosecuting people under vague and loosely defined charges and silencing political opponents, journalists and critics (I notice the abuse of ‘anti-terrorist’ legislation to put people in jail for alleged or real crimes that have actually nothing to do with terrorism, a tactic already used by the Latin American military dictatorships in the 1970s) while doing nothing to solve the gang problem.

Of course, the cynical in me is asking himself whether the anti-gang legislation hadn’t been passed mostly to consolidate Bukele’s grip on power (after having taking over the judicial power just few months ago) and if the biggest gang in El Salvador wasn’t his own government.

But Bukele likes BitCoin! He definitely can't be a closet authoritarian /s

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

[snip]
But Bukele likes BitCoin! He definitely can't be a closet authoritarian /s

I think Bukele is far from a closeted authoritarian at this point.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

snip

Apologies for a non-immediate response. My brain must have passed over it when I checked the alerts.
I was not at all implying that Bukele was really good in any way. I just dislike/disapprove of the gangs even more. I fully admit Bukele has some pretty nasty tendencies at this point, but the gangs, being who they are, still seem to be a bigger evil. El Salvador's a sad place, in political terms.
Thus, I critically support Bukele against the gangs. This does not mean I approve of Bukele. I am not going to see him as an excellent leader just because of bitcoin (though I understand why the bitcoin enthusiast crowd likes him); the bitcoin factor is one of many factors that I would use to assess him. The resounding majority of those factors point south.

[Sir John Johns]

According to an investigation of El Faro published these last days and backed by audio recordings of gang leaders and Carlos Marroquín, the government’s leading negotiator, the collapse of the truce has happened after the arrest of MS13 gang top members who had been previously promised a ‘safe conduct’ and were traveling in a government vehicle . This was considered as a ‘treason’ by the MS13 which reportedly issued an ultimatum to the government to free the arrested criminals within 72 hours. Bukele reacted badly to the MS13 demand (‘they can’t threaten me’) and dismissed the ultimatum. The killing spree ensued.

The El Faro investigation has also confirmed that, unlike what the Bukele administration is pretending, there have been negotiations with the MS13 since almost two and a half years but that Marroquín has fallen out of favor with Bukele to the benefit of the security minister, Gustavo Villatoro, a partisan of a heavy-handed approach. Villatoro decided of the arrest without Marroquín’s knowledge. In his discussions with the gang leaders, Marroquín is referring to Villatoro as ‘the crazy minister’ and has warned them to not trust any other public official than himself, stating that Villatoro is making separate deals with dissident factions of the MS13, presumably to undermine the gang. Marroquín is also mentioning to have personally released the MS13 leader Helmer Canales Rivera (aka ‘Crook of Hollywood’), sentenced to 60 years in jail for homicide, and enabled him to go to Guatemala in spite of the United States having requested his extradition on terrorism charges.

Here is the El Faro article in English.

And a Twitter thread summing up the El Faro revelations:

https://twitter.com/elfaroenglish/status/1527378452755533824

Oh, and also:

https://twitter.com/TizBreda/status/1526554364432855041

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Is there support in El Salvador and other Latin Ameirca countries for ending extradition treaties with the united states ? I think ending extradition could be an easy concession the goverments could make towards the gangs.

[Santander]

Gangs will be gangs, I suppose.

The President is the biggest gangster in the country.