US Blacklists El Salvador Officials, Bolstering Accusations of Gang Pacts
EL SALVADOR
/9 DEC 2021 BY SETH ROBBINS
In what appears to be a shot at El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s administration, the United States has imposed sanctions on two functionaries with close ties to the president, accusing them of corruption and having secretly negotiated with the country’s deadly street gangs.
Osiris Luna, El Salvador’s head of prisons, and Carlos Marroquín, the head of the government’s Social Fabric Reconstruction Unit (Unidad de Reconstrucción del Tejido Social), are accused of engaging incarcerated gang leaders in talks to lower killings in exchange for privileges, such as access to cell phones and prostitutes, according to a December 8 Treasury Department statement.
Luna and Marroquín also allegedly negotiated with gang leadership to provide political support to Bukele’s party, New Ideas (Nuevas Ideas), ahead of legislative elections in March. In addition, gangs agreed to impose COVID-19 quarantine measures in areas under their control, according to Treasury.
The Treasury Department, meanwhile, has also accused Luna and his mother, Alma Yanira Meza Olivares, of stealing and reselling food meant for pandemic relief, as well as embezzling millions of dollars from the prison commissary. Meza has also been sanctioned.
More:
https://insightcrime.org/news/us-blacklists-el-salvador-officials-bolstering-accusations-gang-pacts/