Government truce with gangs in El Salvador
From March 2012 to May 2014, the Salvadoran government, the Catholic Church, and the country's two largest criminal gangs — Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the 18th Street gang (Barrio 18) — came to a truce, known in El Salvador simply as the Gang Truce (), to lower the country's rate of homicides and extortions in exchange for improved prison conditions and certain visitation privileges. The truce's principal negotiators were Minister of Public Security David Munguía Payés, former deputy Raúl Mijango, and Bishop Fabio Colindres, and the negotiations were overseen by President Mauricio Funes.
The existence of the truce was alleged by the online newspaper "El Faro" in early March 2012, after 30 gang leaders were transferred from a maximum-security prison to a lower-security prison, and confirmed after representatives from the gangs and the Catholic Church admitted that they negotiated a truce with the government. However, the government initially denied that they had negotiated with the gangs and that any truce existed; as the truce resulted in a decrease in crime, the government began to acknowledge its existence, but continued to attribute the decrease in crime to its security policies. The government formally recognized its role in negotiating the truce in September 2012.
Although fractures in the truce began to manifest in July and August 2012, in November 2012 an effort to establish "peace zones" in Salvadoran municipalities helped restore the truce and reaffirm the gangs' commitments to reduce their criminal activities. Although the gang surrendered its weapons and the government removed soldiers from the designated peace zones, the truce again began to break down in February 2013 following an increase in homicides; the truce continued to fall apart throughout 2013 as homicides continued to rise. In May 2014, as the homicide rate reached 14 per day, Funes stated that "the truce has failed".
The truce received criticism from journalists, religious figures, and politicians, who claimed that the truce gave the gangs political legitimacy, that it failed to produce any benefits for the population, and that it failed to solve the overall problem of gang violence in the country. Additionally, the truce became a major issue during the 2014 presidential election. In 2016, the gangs revealed that members of both the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) secretly negotiated with the gangs prior to the election to persuade them to vote in the election.
The truce resulted in an overall decrease in homicides. The government recorded 2,576 homicides in 2012, a 41 percent decrease from the 4,371 homicides recorded in 2011; in 2013, the government recorded 2,492 homicides, a slight decrease from 2012. With the truce's collapse in mid-2014, homicides returned to pre-truce levels and the country recorded 3,912 homicides in 2014. The year after the truce ended, 2015, saw 6,657 homicides, the most since 1983 during the Salvadoran Civil War. In the years following the truce's collapse, several individuals have been arrested, charged, and ordered to stand trial regarding their involvement with the truce, including Funes, Munguía, and Mijango. In 2017 and 2019, Mijango was acquitted of all charges, while in 2023, Funes () and Munguía were sentenced to 14 years and 18 years imprisonment, respectively, for their roles in the truce.
Background.
Criminal activity.
Criminal gangs have been a major problem in El Salvador since the conclusion of the Salvadoran Civil War in 1992, being responsible for the majority of the crimes committed in the country. According to journalist C. Ramos, more violent deaths occurred in the 1990s than during the entirety of the twelve-year civil war. In 2004, there were an estimated 10,000 to 39,000 gang members in El Salvador; by 2012, the estimate was over 60,000. The country's two largest gangs are Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the 18th Street gang (Barrio 18), and most of its members arrived in the country after being deported from the United States.
For most of its history, the country has faced high homicide rates in comparison to its neighboring countries. In the 1960s and 1970s, the rate was 30 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants; from 1994 to 1997, the rate was 80 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Other crimes committed by the gangs included making threats, robbery, motor-vehicle theft, arms trafficking, drug trafficking, extortion, rape, and kidnapping. According to Salvadoran President Antonio Saca of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), over 50 percent of homicides in the country were committed by gang members, and the National Civil Police (PNC) estimated that the gangs committed over 60 percent of all crimes.
According to polling conducted by the Central American University (UCA) during the 2000s, 20.8 percent of Salvadorans believed that gangs were the main issue facing the country, 55 percent would support killing a criminal who terrorizes a community, and 40.5 would approve the lynching of a criminal.
In July 2003, Salvadoran President Francisco Flores Pérez of ARENA announced the implementation of (Spanish for "The Iron Fist") security policy to combat the gangs and lower the country's homicide rate. Upon assuming office in June 2004, Saca increased the security policies of , announcing that ("Super Iron Fist") would replace the original policy. The policies of and included joint police and military patrols of gang-controlled areas, random searches of suspected gang members, and the ability to arrest individuals on appearance alone. As a result of both and , around 4,000 gang members were arrested, leading to overcrowding in El Salvador's prisons.
Upon assuming office in June 2009, President Mauricio Funes of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) maintained some of the policies of . He ended mass raids of gang territory to instead focus on the police's investigation capacities. In September 2010, the Legislative Assembly passed the Gang Prohibition Act in response to an increase in gang violence. The law doubled the maximum prison sentence for minors, allowed authorities to freeze bank accounts and seize assets of gang members, and made gang membership illegal. In February 2012, Funes implemented new anti-gang policies to increase the militarization of the police and a proposed curfew to prevent gang members from being in the streets at night. The policies resulted in an increase of homicides, however, and the government blamed the increase on "backlash" from the gangs against the policies.
Truce.
Beginning of the truce.
On 9 March 2012, 30 gang leaders of MS-13 and Barrio 18 were moved from the Zacatecoluca maximum-security prison to lower-security prisons with "more relaxed rules on visitors". On 11 March, the online newspaper "El Faro" suggested that the Salvadoran government had been secretly negotiating with MS-13 and Barrio 18 in an effort to reduce the country's homicide rate. The following day, 12 March, was reportedly "the least violent day the country has seen in three years" when only two people were killed.
On 21 March 2012, Bishop Fabio Reynaldo Colindres Abarca claimed that the Catholic Church helped mediate a truce between MS-13 and Barrio 18 to end "deadly attacks". He stated that the government had not given the gangs any concessions and that the gangs contacted him to mediate in the truce's negotiations. Raúl Mijango, a former deputy of the Legislative Assembly, stated that he helped mediate the truce and that the government was fully aware of the truce. Representatives of both MS-13 and Barrio 18 confirmed that a truce between them and the government existed.
The Salvadoran government denied negotiating a deal with the gangs to decrease homicide rates in exchange for better prison conditions. In a press conference, Funes denied that the government ever held negotiations with the gangs, stating "the government did not sit down to negotiate with gangs". He did, however, state that the government supported the agreement between the gangs and the Church. He added that the transfer of prisoners was "not illegal" and that those being transferred did not receive "preferential treatment" at their new prison. Minister of Public Security David Munguía Payés also denied the allegations, saying "I want the following statement to be loud and clear [...] the government of the republic is not at any time negotiating with any gang". He said that the prisoners were moved because of the Church's appeals on humanitarian grounds, that they were attempting to escape from the prisons, and that they had already served their required ten-year sentence in a maximum-security prison. Police officials denied the allegations of a truce, claiming that the reduce in homicides were a result of "improved coordination and intelligence".
Continued negotiations.
In April 2012, the Church announced that it was continuing further negotiations with the gangs to reduce extortion. Munguía stated that the government was willing to facilitate the negotiations but not participate in them, saying that "the government cannot sit down to negotiate with criminal groups". He also stated that any concessions from the government would be "within the scope of the law", such as allowing gang members to be visited by their children and increasing the allowed time for visitations. He added, however, that the government was ready to return to stricter anti-gang measures if the negotiations collapsed.
After the truce's first month, Munguía acknowledged that it existed, saying "I think that this pact between gangs still has not yet been totally fulfilled, and I think it will be difficult to fulfill to perfection [...] there are also other gangs who haven't agreed to the pact, and there are still internal problems inside these gangs". Nevertheless, he claimed that the decrease in violence was a result of improved police operations and better government security strategy. In mid-April 2012, the government announced a plan to allow tens of thousands of imprisoned gang members to find employment opportunities after being released; the plan was expected to cost around US$20 million. Despite the announcement, the government stated that it was difficult to find companies who were willing to participate.
In early May 2012, the gangs agreed to extend the truce to school zones and said that they would end the forced recruitment of members. The announcement, presented by Víctor Antonio García Cerón, a leader of Barrio 18, at the Quezaltepeque prison, read:
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;We have considered making a second gesture of good faith, which consists of declaring all scholarly centers of the country, public and private, as zones of peace; that is to say, they are no longer to be considered disputed territories, which will permit the students and teachers to carry on with their educational activities with all normality, and the families of the students will be liberated of all worry when they send their children to school... We also declare that henceforth, all involuntary recruitment of adults and children into our ranks will cease.
Fracturing in late 2012.
In mid-July 2012, the government arrested 185 gang members in San Salvador as a part of a "mega-operation" intended to capture 200 gang members. Additionally, three gang leaders were arrested in Soyapango who were connected to the assassinations of three police officers three months prior. In August 2012, Munguía stated that the police were arresting an average of 250 people per day, but announced that the police would begin reducing the number of arrests. He denied the reduction was in response to demands from the gangs.
According to Miguel Fortin, the director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine (IML), the truce began to fracture in August 2012 as homicide rates began to steadily increase, with 58 homicides being recorded in the first week of the month. On 20 August 2012, two leaders of MS-13 were killed in Soyapango by lower-ranking members, supposedly due to the two leaders attempting to undermine the truce.
In September 2012, the Salvadoran government formally acknowledged its role in organizing the truce, stating that the Ministry of Public Security directly negotiated with the gangs under the oversight of Funes. According to Mijango, some of the gangs' demands included the repeal of the Gang Prohibition Act, the end of police operations in gang-controlled territory, the repeal of a law which provided benefits to individuals in exchange for information about others with criminal connections, and general improvements in the prisoners' quality of life. In November 2012, Mijango and Colindres called upon the Legislative Assembly to repeal the Gang Prohibition Act to further distance the country from the old policies, but Funes stated that he would oppose any effort to repeal the law.
Peace zones.
On 22 November 2012, Mijango and Colindres announced that the next phase of the truce would be the