El Salvador remains tight-lipped over the capture of a gang leader in the US

There is secrecy on the part of the authorities of El Salvador regarding the capture in the United States of Jorge Alexander de la Cruz, alias “Cruger”, a leader of the structure of the so-called Mara Salvatrucha “MS-13”.

“Cruger” has been brought before a court in New York to face prosecution for acts of terrorism and for being linked to an alleged negotiation of a truce with government officials between 2019 and 2022.

Deputy Claudia Ortiz, from the minority VAMOS party, believes that the silence of the Salvadoran authorities is serious, both in this and in other cases in which gang leaders, according to various investigations, have played decisive roles in participating in serious crimes against the civilian population and in expanding their activities to other countries such as Mexico.

“Given this situation, these accusations and this serious situation… the legislative assembly must take action,” Ortiz said.

According to a publication in the newspaper La Prensa Gráfica, neither did the authorities
The Americans have provided details about the arrest of De la Cruz alias “Cruger”, but criminology expert Ricardo Sosa says that this condition will not have major implications at the judicial level in the United States.

“In my opinion, it has no implication in the judicial process that is being followed against this leader of criminal gang structures. The only thing that is striking is that it breaks the pattern in the sense that other people prosecuted by the United States Department of Justice have had the details of their arrests made public,” said Sosa.

This leader of the gang structure, according to publications on the digital portal “El Faro”, is also implicated in the so-called Operation Jaque, in which he presumably ordered the execution of several leaders of a lower level of command of the so-called Ranfla Histórica, as a purge.

El Faro also revealed an alleged negotiation of officials of the Government of President Nayib Bukele with three of the main gangs operating in El Salvador, “to seek to reduce homicides in the country.

After the digital media outlet published its report, the current president of the Salvadoran Congress, Ernesto Castro, downplayed the journalistic investigation.

On his social media account, X wrote that the current government had “saved hundreds of lives” with its security plan.

And, in direct reference to the publication, he said that “obviously, there will always be power groups interested in us returning to the previous state of things. Why? Because they live off chaos. If there is no violence, if there are no deaths, they have no reason to exist, they have nothing to publish. That is why they want us to go backwards.”

[Con información de Nelly Mabel Reyes, colaboradora de la VOA en El Salvador]

Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channelsYouTube, WhatsApp and to newsletter. Turn on notifications and follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.