Members of Task Force Vulcan, a unit created during the first Trump administration to dismantle the MS-13 gang, were reportedly directed to dismiss charges against high-ranking gang leaders while simultaneously building a new case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
The New York Times noted that in April the task force moved to drop criminal charges against Vladimir Arévalo Chávez, who stood accused of multiple murders, in order to deport him to El Salvador.
At the same time, prosecutors began building a case against Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man wrongly deported to El Salvador despite a court order barring his removal to the Central American country.
The decisions were part of the now well-documented arrangement between the Trump administration and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, in which El Salvador agreed to accept hundreds of U.S. deportees. In return, the United States would back MS-13 leaders in its custody and provide financial assistance to El Salvador.
The arrangement led to the dismissal of charges against figures like César Humberto López Larios, who was awaiting trial on narco-terrorism charges. He was deported on the same day as Abrego Garcia.
The outlet has also reported that the dropping of charges follows an alleged pact between the Salvadoran government and some high-ranking MS-13 leaders who agreed to drive down violence and bolster Bukele politically in exchange for cash and perks in jail.
"Some who were part of the federal investigation worry that Mr. Bukele wants the gang leaders back to prevent them from revealing damaging information about his government," reads a passage of the article.
Since Bukele became President of El Salvador in 2019, he has positioned himself as a defender of safety in his native country. Due to constant gang violence, he declared a state of emergency, which suspended some constitutional rights, allowing the government to arrest who it suspected of being a gang member with little to no due process. That emergency designation was supposed to last just a few months, but it has now been years.
The Trump administration has not acknowledged the alleged deal between El Salvador and the international criminal organization. Instead, the White House has pointed to its goals of "making America safe again," which include expelling criminals from the country.
Bukele's close relationship with Salvadoran criminals and gang members is an open international secret. In May, Carlos Caragena Lopez, one of the most recognized gang leaders in El Salvador whose charges were recently dropped in his home country, gave a 41-minute interview to El Faro, where he detailed how his gang, as well as other criminal organizations, allegedly helped the president rise to power.
Oscar Martinez, editor-in-chief of El Faro and co-author of the article, told El Pais that "[this interview] describes how gangs turned Bukele into a relevant politician. It allows us to reach the stark conclusion that it is impossible to understand Bukele's rise to total power without his association with gangs."
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