El Salvador’s President Accused of Targeting Journalists Over Secret Gang Pact Revelations
Nayib Bukele's administration faces backlash over reported plans to arrest journalists exposing alleged ties to criminal gangs and election manipulation.
Watan-Media reports have revealed that the administration of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele—a close ally of Israel and political partner of former U.S. President Donald Trump—is preparing to arrest several journalists after interviews exposed new details about a secret deal between Bukele and gang leaders.
According to El Faro, an independent Salvadoran newspaper, the Attorney General’s Office—under Bukele’s control—is preparing at least seven arrest warrants for its journalists. This comes after the outlet published an exclusive interview with two former leaders of the “18th Street Revolution” gang, who revealed Bukele’s ongoing ties with criminal groups.
El Faro stated that carrying out these warrants would be a dangerous precedent: “This would be the first time in decades that journalists are prosecuted for their professional work.”
Bukele, who refers to himself as “the world’s coolest dictator,” responded on X (formerly Twitter) Friday night by defending his policies:“A country enjoying peace—no murders, no extortion, no daily corpses—doesn’t please human rights organizations, international media, the elites, or George Soros.”
While the Bukele-gang agreement is already widely known in El Salvador, El Faro was the first media outlet to broadcast video footage with direct confessions from gang leaders about the deal.
📹 El Faro interviewed two 18th Street Revolucionarios gang leaders who not only cut deals for years with the entourage of Nayib Bukele, but also escaped the country with the complicity of his government. This is the first time that gang leaders reveal on camera details about the… pic.twitter.com/awymvYCUDt
— El Faro English (@elfaroenglish) May 5, 2025
Shocking New Details
The paper revealed that the interviews could only happen because the former gang leaders were smuggled out of the country with the help of officials loyal to the president. One of the leaders, “Liro Man,” was secretly transported to Guatemala through an unofficial border crossing by a Bukele-linked gang intermediary, Carlos Marroquín. The other leader, “Charlie” (Carlos Cartagena), was arrested in April 2022 during a state of emergency but was released after police received a mysterious phone call.
While these accommodations were being granted to top gang figures, security forces were arresting tens of thousands of civilians without trial on gang-related charges.
The video footage shows that Bukele’s government struck secret deals with gang leaders that, according to the testimonies, included financial support during elections. One of the former leaders claimed the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) paid the gangs $250,000 during the 2014 campaign to support Bukele’s bid for mayor of San Salvador, as reported by Common Dreams.
One gang leader stated:“We told residents in the neighborhoods to vote for Bukele. If they didn’t, we would kill them.”
He added: “Bukele knew perfectly well that he needed the gangs to get where he is today.”
The testimonies also reveal a chilling pact: “No body, no crime.” Under this logic, gangs agreed to hide their victims’ bodies so Bukele could promote a declining crime rate.
The El Faro reporting is how we know among those kidnapped by the U.S. and sent to CECOT are some actual gang members who were set to be indicted in the U.S. and possibly testify to Bukele’s deals with them. I did a deep dive about this here: https://t.co/p5LHGmvs4h https://t.co/EMd51eUXWO
— Francesca Fiorentini – is on Bluesky 🖕 (@franifio) May 4, 2025
Global Dimensions & Press Freedom Concerns
In a major international development, Common Dreams reported that the Trump administration deported gang members to El Salvador even though they were facing federal charges in the U.S.—charges that could have enabled them to testify against Bukele in American courts.
Reacting to the crackdown on El Faro, Argentine journalist Eliazar Budasoff wrote:“El Salvador’s leader wants to silence the newspaper simply because it practices journalism and dismantles the myths of his administration.”
El Faro has endured years of attacks from Bukele’s administration, including fabricated money laundering and tax evasion charges, bans on attending official press conferences, and spyware surveillance using tools like Pegasus.
Despite this, the newspaper has stood firm. In a public 2022 statement, its editors declared:“Every citizen must decide whether they want to know the truth or remain blindly loyal to what this administration imposes. As for us, our job is to report the truth. We will not change the news, and we never will.”
