The investigation of the Salvadoran newspaper El Faro linked the March massacre to the breaking of an alleged pact between the Executive and the gangs. The editor-in-chief of the newspaper tells France 24 how, in the midst of a climate of persecution of the independent press, his team worked to reach these serious accusations.
“It’s the goal of journalism: to reveal.” This is how the editor-in-chief of the Salvadoran newspaper El Faro answers France 24’s query about what motivated the publication of his latest and explosive investigation.
“Journalism is based on the idea that an informed society makes better decisions than an uninformed society,” continues journalist Óscar Martínez. “So, I think that Salvadoran society should know that their government was negotiating with criminal groups. I think that the mothers, fathers, children and siblings of the 87 dead should know why their relatives fell that weekend.”
Those 87 deaths that Martínez mentions were registered between March 25 and 27 in El Salvador. The country reported 62 homicides only for Saturday the 26th, a date that was placed as the deadliest day since the end of the civil war. These crimes were soon attributed by the Salvadoran Executive to those criminal groups known as “gangs” or “maras.”
This wave of violence in El Salvador led to the approval by Congress of an emergency regime at the end of March. A measure that enjoyed great popularity among the population, who considered it a firm response to these rampant gangs.
At that time, several local media outlets claimed that the decrease in the number of violent deaths recorded before that end of the week was due to a pact between the government of President Nayib Bukele and the gangs. El Faro came this week to add fuel to the fire with an investigation, and Martínez tells France 24 in what condition the investigation was carried out and with what risk.
An investigation that confirmed journalists’ doubts
That journalistic work was published this Tuesday and intends to show that the breaking of an alleged pact between the Salvadoran government and the gangs caused the massacre at the end of March. It was signed by Carlos Martínez, while Óscar Martínez, his brother, intervened as editor.
The latter begins by saying that the investigation did not come as a surprise, but rather came to confirm doubts that they already had within the newspaper: “We had the suspicion, rather the certainty -the journalist corrects himself- that the increase in homicides had to to do with some problem in the negotiations between the government and the gangs.
And it is that El Faro enjoys a long career in revealing agreements between successive governments and the gangs. Thus, it is not the first investigation that brings to light the alleged use of these methods by the current government. “Furthermore, we know from experience that the gangs, as a criminal organization, use the dead as a means of pressure. So yes, we suspected that these crimes were most likely due to a disagreement with the pact that the government had fulfilled with them.”
To tell a story fully, you can’t just talk to people you morally like.
Óscar Martínez, editor-in-chief of Faro
To prepare this investigation, journalist Carlos Martínez says he was in contact with two leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha-13 and one from Barrio 18, the most influential groups in El Salvador. And to justify resorting to criminals for the writing of this work, the reporter invokes “journalistic reasons”: “To tell a story completely, one cannot speak only with people who morally like him.”
He also explains that, according to him, the government itself gives weight and voice to the gangs: “They have turned them into political actors, they have given them importance. So we have also cultivated some sources within those organizations.”
“You don’t have to be the best journalist in the world to talk to a gang member”
The journalist, who has extensive experience in covering the Salvadoran reality, insists on putting things in the context of the country: “According to the latest counts, there are more than 70,000 gang members and almost 6.5 million inhabitants in El Salvador. You don’t have to be the best journalist in the world to get to talk to a gang member. If you look at the international media, it’s not so exotic to get a gang member as a source.” And indeed, the renowned British network BBC Mundo published a month ago an interview with leaders of Barrio 18-Sureños.
However, Óscar Martínez insists that at no time does the newspaper’s editorial team defend the crimes of the gang members: “They may have come to us because they feel betrayed by the government. But we have never stopped questioning their activities. They have also threatened us on several occasions.”
And if the reporters consider that at times it is necessary to talk to gang members to understand the ins and outs of a story, Óscar Martínez assures that “we do not publish anything that does not seem plausible to us. The information they provide us is always verified.”
“It is a bit naive to think that the gang members will not want to secure evidence”
In the case of this investigation, the published audios would come from telephone conversations between a leader of the Mara Salvatrucha-13 and the director of Reconstruction of the Social Fabric of El Salvador, Carlos Marroquín. These conversations would have been recorded without the latter’s authorization, “although in a country like El Salvador it is a bit naive to think that the gang members will not want to secure evidence,” says Martínez.
Once the reporter Carlos Martínez had them in his possession, those audios were first verified with sources belonging to the gangs. “Then we talked to another source, which was not even possible to mention in the article,” says Óscar Martínez.
Finally, El Faro used three software -two forensic audio and one for commercial use- to compare Marroquín’s voice in some of his public interventions, with the voice heard in the recordings.
A context of “persecution” of press freedom
And so the investigation was born that accuses “irrefutably” -Martínez remarks- the government of Nayib Bukele of negotiating with criminal actors. But what risk does that publication entail for its authors? “The problem is that we have published this investigation when a ‘gag’ law has already been approved.”
That law that Óscar Martínez mentions was voted on in the first week of April. It penalizes those who “reproduce messages allegedly originating or originating from gangs” with up to 15 years in prison; that, according to the same text, to avoid generating “anxiety and panic” among the population. “But the one that generates anxiety is the government, with its failed negotiations, which cost the country 87 deaths,” says the journalist.
Óscar Martínez goes further in his accusations, and does not rule out that the reform, -which was approved just a few weeks before the publication of his team’s work-, arose with the intention of covering up that investigation: “It is no longer difficult for me believe anything from this government. And I don’t see why they ban journalists from publishing about the gangs right after a wave of violence. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had some kind of notion of the investigation, and they were afraid that what was revealed would be revealed. we have revealed.”
It’s Friday already, and the government’s silence in the face of the published investigation is more notorious than any noise. https://t.co/wZ98nYUBJv
– Óscar Martínez (@CronistaOscar) May 20, 2022
At the time of the interview, Carlos and Óscar are in Mexico, but for work reasons. “On the other hand, we do have Salvadoran colleagues who are in preventive exile. They have been persecuted for revealing and investigating; as if it were not the work of a journalist,” he remarks.
However, the editor-in-chief of El Faro tells France 24 that he does not intend to be intimidated: “The puzzle has not yet been put in order. Many pieces are missing; many actors to discover, many promises of the pact to be revealed.”
A response from the main victims is still waiting. The one they call ‘Batman’ in the audios between Marroquín and the Mara Salvatrucha, President Nayib Bukele, still does not clarify the complaint.
“It’s not the first time,” says Martínez. “The past has shown that when they impose a narrative that they don’t like, they tend to keep quiet. In a more democratic country, they would at least have to show their faces and say that an investigation is being carried out. But El Salvador is no longer democratic: a one man directs everything”.
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