A new report by Salvadoran
news site El Faro reveals that conservative presidential candidate Norman
Quijano made overtures to the country’s most powerful street gangs during his
campaign, even as he lashed out at the ruling FMLN for facilitating a truce between
them.
As El Faro reports, Quijano instructed
members of his campaign to reach out to leaders of the MS-13 and Barrio 18
street gangs responsible for the ongoing
but shaky ceasefire. The message,
according to an intermediary approached by Quijano and to various figures in his
ARENA party, was that the candidate’s promises to eradicate gangs
and public condemnations of the truce were not accurate reflections of his
position. If victorious, he would support a greater emphasis on violence prevention
and reintegration programs, like the ones currently complementing the gang
talks.
The revelation makes Quijano look
hypocritical and, for FMLN supporters, has delicious irony. It not only clashes
with his “tough on crime” image, but also with the rhetoric used by ARENA
supporters in the U.S., who took to op-ed columns in the lead-up to last month’s runoff election to warn that
the FMLN’s “criminal
ties” could turn the country into a “gang
haven.”
But the El Faro report is significant for
other reasons. The news site claims that Quijano was motivated to approach the
gangs because their support for his rival was intimidating potential ARENA
voters. Ahead of the election, gang members were allegedly bullying individuals
into voting for the FMLN, reportedly even stealing the identification cards of
some Salvadorans who might vote for the conservative candidate. If this was
halted, in exchange the gangs would receive an open line of communication with Quijano’s
government on security policies if he won the election.
Ultimately, these advances may have contributed
to Quijano’s improved performance in the polls in the second round, which he
lost to President-elect Salvador Sanchez Ceren by just 0.22 percentage points.
If true, the news adds weight to the
arguments of individuals like security analyst Doug Farah, who have consistently
warned that the truce provides gangs with an opportunity to deepen their
political influence. If voter intimidation and the risk of an increased
homicide rate are all that is needed to gain concessions from authorities in in
El Salvador, the country’s democracy is in dire straits.
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