KILLINGS IN EL SALVADOR DIP, RAISING QUESTIONS OF A DEAL

Gang leaders got better lot in prison, then violence fell

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD NYT News Service
12:01 a.m., March 25, 2012
Updated 6:07 p.m. , March 24, 2012

MEXICO CITY — Suddenly, killings have plummeted in El Salvador, one of the most violent countries in Central America and a source of growing worry over gangs and organized crime.

But the possibility that the reduction in violence resulted from a secret deal between the government and gang leaders to halt killings in exchange for better prison conditions has rattled El Salvador’s political establishment and led to various explanations from government leaders.

In countries wracked by violence, including Mexico, the notion of negotiating with criminals to curtail violence fills blogs and cocktail chatter but is usually dismissed by government officials.

But a Salvadoran government official and an intelligence agent with knowledge of the discussions, both of whom object to such pacts, said in telephone interviews that a deal was widely discussed by security and intelligence officials in the weeks before gang leaders were moved to less-restrictive prisons.

An intelligence report prepared in February and provided by the government official asserts that top members of the Public Security and Justice Ministry “offered, if it is necessary, to make deals or negotiate with subjects who have power inside organized crime structures to reduce homicides.”

There is no dispute that, in an unprecedented move, 30 of the top leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 criminal gangs were transferred on March 8 and 9 from a maximum-security prison, where many had been for more than a decade, to prisons with perks, including family visits.

In the ensuing days, killings in El Salvador dropped to five a day, and sometimes even fewer, from the typical 14. All told, homicides nationwide dropped to 186 in the first 21 days of March from 411 in January and 402 in February.

El Faro, an online newspaper, first reported that the prison transfer came about from a deal the Security Ministry made with gang leaders.

At a news conference on March 16, the public security and justice minister, David Munguia, denied any deal had been made and offered three reasons for the transfer: The prisoners’ sentences called for a reduction in the amount of time in maximum security; some were ailing; and jailers had gotten word of a plot for a mass escape.

He attributed the reduction in killings to effective police work.

But on Tuesday night, Bishop Fabio Colindres, El Salvador’s military and police chaplain, told a news conference in El Salvador that the Roman Catholic Church itself had negotiated a deal with the gangs, aided by a former leftist guerrilla, to reduce violence for nothing in return.

The abundance of explanations for the decrease in killings has left civic and political leaders skeptical and calling for answers.

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