One of the members of the criminal leadership of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) has been arrested in Mexico. Elmer Canales Rivera, alias Hollywood Crook, was arrested for an extradition request to the United States, where he is accused of four crimes of terrorism, an official from the US Embassy confirmed to EL PAÍS. El Ladrón, as he is also known, is one of the most wanted gang members by US authorities and identified by Washington as one of the architects behind the negotiations between the criminal organization and the Government of Nayib Bukele, as well as other forces. policies in El Salvador.
The arrest, reported by the newspaper The printing press citing diplomatic sources, once again ignites the controversy around the alleged pacts between gangs such as MS-13 and Barrio 18, and the Bukele Administration, reported for years by local journalists. According to the judicial file in the United States, Canales Rivera, 45, had already been arrested in June 2021 and was serving a sentence in the maximum security prison of Zacatecoluca, in the south of the Central American country, but was released irregularly. months later, despite the fact that Washington had already requested extradition and that there was an Interpol red card against him.
The Salvadoran press reported that El Crook lived in a luxurious apartment in one of the most exclusive areas of San Salvador until he had to hide and flee, first to Guatemala and then to Mexico, according to The lighthouse. Bukele limited himself to sharing a emoji with a winking face when the media covered the arrest. The circumstances of the capture have not been clear, as the arrest was leaked without there being an official statement from either the Mexican or American authorities.
Hollywood Crook is one of the so-called “twelve apostles of the devil,” as the founding and highest-ranking members of the National Ranfla, the “Board of Directors” of MS-13, were nicknamed, in the words of US authorities. . In 2002, Canales Rivera joined other gang leaders who were imprisoned to create a structure that would command and supervise the cells of the criminal organization and take control of the prisons where the gang members were spread. All important decisions go through Ranfla: from establishing punishments for snitches and collecting extortions from the civilian population to signing pacts with high-level politicians and drug cartels such as the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas.
The four crimes charged against Canales Rivera and the other 13 highest-ranking members of MS-13 are conspiracy to provide and conceal material support to terrorists, conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism that transcend national borders, conspiracy to finance terrorism and narcoterrorism conspiracy. “This is the most far-reaching and overwhelming indictment against MS-13 and its command and control structure in the history of the United States,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York said in a statement when they were made public. the charges, in early 2021. By then, Canales Rivera had already been subject to financial sanctions and had been on the Treasury Department’s blacklist for six years along with other members of the organization’s leadership.
The United States assures that the gang has tens of thousands of members, organized in 200 cliques and programs, as the cells that are lower in the hierarchy are called. It also characterizes it as a terrorist organization that has penetrated to the highest levels of power in El Salvador and with influence in the United States and Mexico. “MS-13 and its members use violence against law enforcement, elements of the Army, government officials and civilians in El Salvador to obtain concessions from the Salvadoran Government, achieve political objectives and respond with reprisals to government actions against them and their leaders,” reads the US indictment.
“In Mexico, MS-13 leaders established connections to obtain narcotics and firearms, conduct business with Mexican cartels, and engage in human trafficking and smuggling,” it says about the group’s expansion into Mexican territory, where The gang has been established at least since 2007. The Mexican program, the representation of the organization in the North American country, has been essential for the gang to obtain resources and extend its alliances with other criminal organizations. Last April, José Wilfredo Ayala, alias The Hollywood Indian, in Mexico City, after hiding for months in a small community in the State of Hidalgo. Like El Crook, El Indio had already been detained in his country of origin and left a Salvadoran prison in circumstances that remained unclear.
The US authorities do not doubt that the organization has made agreements with several Salvadoran officials for at least a decade. “Approximately in 2012, Ranfla Nacional held secret negotiations with members of the ruling Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) and MS-13’s main rivals, Barrio 18, to enter into a ‘truce’ and reduce homicides. in El Salvador, in exchange for better prison conditions, benefits and money,” prosecutors say. The truce, however, collapsed in 2015. They also blame negotiations with the conservative ARENA and the leftist FMLN to mobilize thousands of votes and influence the elections. The alleged irregular releases from prison follow a similar logic: the drug lords agree to reduce violence in exchange for being free, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.
Washington assures that “Ranfla Nacional has continued negotiating with political parties in El Salvador and using its control over levels of violence to influence the actions of the Salvadoran Government.” Bukele has denied on several occasions that there are pacts with the mafias and has reaffirmed his strong-arm measures against criminal groups, which are widely popular in El Salvador. The lighthouseone of the main independent media outlets in that country, published an audio in which Carlos Marroquín, a well-known businessman, supposedly admits that he facilitated El Crook’s escape as a result of agreements with Salvadoran officials.
Last year, as part of another case, Washington assured that there was another truce, already with the Bukele Administration, from 2019 to 2021. The gang asked precisely that its leaders not be extradited. The White House directly pointed out to El Crook and two other members of the National Ranfla that “they met secretly on numerous occasions with representatives of the Salvadoran Government in the Zacatecoluca and Izalco prisons” after the February 2019 presidential elections.
“These meetings were organized by the Salvadoran Government and prison officials,” it is added about the behind-the-scenes agreement. To avoid being identified, the public servants wore masks, as did the gang members, who also wore long-sleeved t-shirts so as not to reveal their characteristic tattoos, according to the United States version.
Now, the capture and extradition of El Crook opens the door for compromising testimonies to come to light about the collusion between the gangs and the Salvadoran authorities, as well as new revelations of the gang’s trail of violence in the United States, Mexico and El Salvador. .
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