Investigators published audios, photographs and testimonies that support Bukele’s contacts with gang leaders in exchange for better prison conditions, outside benefits, and reduced persecution in return for keeping violence down. #SpookyConnections #EndImpunity
According to the investigation, Bukele negotiated with MS-13 in order to reduce homicides in the country and gain electoral support for his election campaign, in which his party, New Ideas, ended up winning 56 of the 84 seats. #SpookyConnections #EndImpunity
Bukele officials entered the prisons with hooded people, including a leader of MS-13, to give orders that were to be carried out on the streets. Traditionally, gangs' electoral support for candidates is not only achieved through the reduction of homicides. #SpookyConnections #EndImpunity
Gangs previously influenced elections by preventing people from voting or confiscating the documents necessary to vote, or by preventing rival politicians from campaigning in the neighborhoods they dominate. Bukele may have been assisted by these gangs. #SpookyConnections #EndImpunity
MS-13 and Barrio 18, with their two factions, are the two largest criminal groups in El Salvador. Authorities estimate that there are about 60,000 active gang members operating in 94 percent of the country's municipalities, and about 18,000 inmates. #SpookyConnections #EndImpunity
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