Journalists familiar with the pact with gangs are accused in El Salvador of “apology of crime”

The political leaders and journalists who “led and were” in the process known as a truce between gangs in The Savior they will be “shown at the judicial level” so that they “respond for apology of crime“, according to the director of the National Civil Police (PNC), Mauricio Arriaza Chicas, said this Tuesday.

“Those political leaders who led this, like some journalists who were also in this (…) the Salvadoran justice and those in charge of the politics of criminal prosecution at any time they will be shown at the judicial level and they are going to have to answer for those actions in which they made a lot of apology for the crime,” said Arriaza Chicas in an interview on the state channel.

The PNC director did not go into details, nor did he mention the names of the people he was referring to.

Between 2012 and 2014, the Mara Salvatrucha (MS13), Barrio 18 and other minority gangs they maintained an armistice to reduce the numbers of homicides backed by the government of former President Mauricio Funes (2009-2014).

According to the Public Ministry, this truce stipulated favors for these gangssuch as prison benefits for imprisoned leaders, public investment in the communities under their control, and a reduced presence of the security forces in the neighborhoods dominated by said structures.

A criminal court in El Salvador sentenced former President Funes (2009-2014) to 14 years in prison, who currently lives in Nicaragua, for the crimes committed within the framework of said truce.

The Prosecutor’s Office explained that Funes received 8 years for the charge of illegal groups and 6 years for breach of duty.

After testifying before the Prosecutor’s Office in 2016, Funes denied that his government had given perks to gang leaders incarcerated in exchange for a decrease in homicides.

However, in the trial against the so-called truce operators, the retired general Munguía Payés, testified as a witness and changed the official version when pointing out that the armistice was a “pacification” policy.

In June 2019, an anti-mafia court sentenced them to between two and three years from prison seven operators of the controversial truce between the gangs. (EFE)