Is El Salvador’s Millennial President Negotiating with the Gangs?

While several major U.S. cities struggle with record spikes in homicides, the small nation of El Salvador has seen a drop in its homicide rate, and the country's strongman President Nayib Bukele is trying to take credit for it—but he might just be getting played by the gangs.

Bukele insists he’d never negotiate with the gangs, but they say otherwise. And sources within the police force suggest that the homicide numbers are not what they seem.

Bukele came to power in El Salvador in 2019 as a millennial anti-politician. Since his election, he’s stirred up controversy by deposing the attorney general, firing all judges over age 60, ending an independent anti-corruption body, effectively eliminating all checks on his power. 

Bukele has also strong-armed a judicial ruling that allows him to run for re-election, a flagrant violation of the constitution. Repeatedly, Bukele has attacked and allegedly spied on the press for criticizing him. And, Bukele has turned the highly volatile cryptocurrency Bitcoin into a national tender, much to the chagrin of his constituents. For a time, Bukele referred to himself on Twitter as the “world’s coolest dictator.”

For decades, El Salvador was considered one of the most violent countries in the world outside of active conflict zones. Two gangs—Mara Salvatrucha, Barrio 18—have evolved into complex criminal structures with hands in drug trafficking, violence, and extortion. 

Previous administrations of El Salvador have had limited success in combating the gangs’ grip on the country. Bukele, by contrast, billed himself as the solution to the problem of gang violence, promising to deal with the crisis without having to come to the bargaining table with either gang—which past administrations had done in secret. 

On the surface, he’s kept his promise. In the months after his election, the homicide rate dropped dramatically. But these statistics tell a much more complicated story. 

VICE reporter David Noriega went to El Salvador to investigate the real reasons for El Salvador’s drop in homicide rates—and if they correspond with an actual increase in safety. As Noriega reports, the full story tells us about the complex and precarious relationship between the gangs, the police, Bukele’s government—and the civilians caught in the middle.

CREDITS: 

This episode was produced by Sayre Quevedo and reported by David Noriega.

Special thanks to Juanita Ceballos and Salvador Sagastizado.

VICE News Reports is produced by Sophie Kazis, Jen Kinney, and Sayre Quevedo. Our senior producers are Ashley Cleek, Adizah Eghan and Sam Greenspan. Our associate producers are Steph Brown and Adreanna Rodriguez. Sound Design and music composition by Steve Bone, Pran Bandi, Natasha Jacobs and Kyle Murdock. 

Our executive producer and the VP of Vice Audio is Kate Osborn. Janet Lee is Senior Production Manager for VICE Audio. 

Fact-checking by Nicole Pasulka. Our theme music is by Steve Bone. Our host is Arielle Duhaime Ross. 

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Read the podcast TRANSCRIPT here.