In April, President Trump and Salvadoran President Bukele shook hands in the Oval Office to celebrate a deal to ship gang members to the notorious CECOT prison. But a new ProPublica investigation found there’s more to the story. 🧵👇
2/ Bukele has a reputation as a crime fighter. He’s jailed some 80,000 gang members. Crime rates have plunged. It turns out, though, that he’s protected another set of gangsters: the leaders of the violent MS-13 street gang, U.S. and Salvadoran officials told us.
3/ In 2019, when Bukele was elected, crime was a big problem. So U.S. prosecutors say Bukele’s aides made a deal with the devil. They allegedly worked with El Diablito, alias for the head of MS-13, to trade money and power for votes and less violence. #document/p18/a2652463 class="text-blue-500 hover:underline" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.documentcloud.org/...
4/ But there was a problem. In 2019, Trump had ordered the creation of Task Force Vulcan, a team of federal agents dedicated to dismantling the leadership of MS-13. When federal agents learned of the alleged deal, they began looking at Bukele and his allies.
5/ We uncovered a previously unreported request where federal agents spelled out their suspicions that Bukele and his allies might have diverted USAID funds to MS-13 as part of the secret deal.
6/ Agents prepared a request for a review of any U.S. bank accounts held by Salvadoran political figures. Bukele and 14 others were on the list.
7/ “Information obtained through investigation has revealed that” the Salvadorans were “heavily engaged with MS-13 and are laundering funds from illicit business where MS-13 are involved,” said the documents that we reviewed. Read here to find out more: https://www.propublica.org/art...
8/ The outcome of the request is not clear. But it’s a sure sign that federal agents were digging into corruption in the Bukele government.
9/ We asked DOJ, State, Treasury about it. All declined to comment. The Salvadoran government did not respond to requests for comment. In the past, Bukele repeatedly has denied making any deal with the gang.
10/ We found more signs that Bukele the crime fighter was fighting the U.S. investigation. Vulcan requested the extradition of 12 top MS-13 leaders - guys who allegedly ordered murders of U.S. citizens. Many were sitting in Salvadoran prisons. #document/p2/a2655386 class="text-blue-500 hover:underline" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.documentcloud.org/...
11/ Bukele aides carried out a secret campaign to block the extraditions. “Bukele and his government are using the entire state apparatus to prevent these people from being extradited,” a person with knowledge of the Salvadoran judicial system told us.
12/ One judge appointed by Bukele allies ordered colleagues: “Do not work on extraditions at all,” the person with knowledge of the Salvadoran justice system told us. To date, none of the MS-13 leaders has been extradited to the U.S.
13/ The campaign continued. Bukele and top aides threatened and harassed Salvadoran officials who were helping out the task force. At least eight of them had to flee the country for fear of retaliation, our sources told us.
14/ Why would Bukele want to protect the MS-13 leaders when he was rounding up their followers? One possible explanation, sources told us: The gang leaders could testify in U.S. courts about the alleged pact. The street-level guys could not.
15/ To bring it back to Trump: The agreement to deport immigrants to El Salvador has effectively undercut the Vulcan investigation and shielded Bukele from further scrutiny, current and former U.S. officials told us.
16/ As part of the deportation deal, Bukele asked for the return of senior MS-13 leaders arrested by Vulcan. The DOJ recently asked the court to drop charges against two top gang bosses, citing “geopolitical and national security concerns.” https://www.documentcloud.org/...
17/ Here’s the White House response to all this: “President Trump is committed to keeping his promises to the American people and removing dangerous criminals and terrorist illegals who pose a threat to the American public. We are grateful for President Bukele’s partnership.”
18/ Read the full story from @txtianmiller and Sebastian Rotella here: https://www.propublica.org/art...
19/ En español: https://www.propublica.org/art...