Why Mara Salvatrucha leader’s statement could put Nayib Bukele on the ropes

One of El Salvador’s most dangerous gang members will make statements this week. These are: Elmer Canales Rivera, alias “el Crook”, the second in command of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) who was extradited to the United States on terrorism charges.

But the man had been in prison before: according to his court records in the United States, he was arrested in El Salvador in June 2021 and had to serve 40 years in prison. He was released months later, while an extradition request was pending.

It would be the latter which would complicate the president Nayib Bukele : ‘The Swindler’ is one of the key people to come forward an alleged negotiation between the Salvadoran government and the gang which Bukele categorically denied.

It’s about the alleged pact that Bukele made with the gangs and how Elmer Canales Rivera’s statement could affect it.

In 2023, The United States has opened an investigation into two senior government officials Nayib Bukele : Osiris Luna Meza, director of prisons, and Carlos Marroquín, presidential secretary Both would have been the protagonists of the alleged negotiation that the Salvadoran president would have had with the dangerous Mara Salvatrucha gang.

According to the prosecution, Between 2019 and 2021, they reportedly released the leaders of the MS-13 gang in exchange for a reduction in homicides. In other words, before waging war against the gangs, Bukele would have tried to negotiate.

Héctor Silva, a Salvadoran journalist who publishes in Infobae , He assured that to dismantle the criminals, the Joint Task Force Vulcano was created, where agents from the FBI and the Anti-Drug Agency work. They would have tapped the phones of some officials and thus reached the two Bukele officials.

Osiris Luna and Carlos Marroquín will have “negotiated on behalf of the president” so that criminals have more flexibility in prisons, economic benefits and, above all, to avoid their extradition to the United States. In exchange, they had to “stop killing each other in the streets and support the Bukele government.”

However, the US government’s investigation was discontinued.

Tomorrow, Tuesday July 9, “El Crook” will make his first statement before the US court in New York. His remarks could have consequences for Bukele if he speaks of alleged negotiations with the gangs.

And according to a federal government lawyer in Washington with whom Infobae was able to communicate The gang member would negotiate a reduced sentence in exchange for information about the Mara Salvatrucha in El Salvador, its influence in the United States and the political relations they allegedly had with Salvadoran governments.

This would include Bukele.