For the first time, two gang leaders who partnered with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to secure his political rise since 2014 detail how that pact came about. Both were leaders of important strongholds in the capital controlled for decades by their gang, the 18th Street Revolucionarios, a criminal organization and enemy of the Mara Salvatrucha-13 (the only Salvadoran gang that has been a priority for U.S. administrations for years). Although Bukele's pacts with MS-13 have been the only ones for which the United States has sanctioned Salvadoran government officials, this newspaper has published extensive evidence that Bukele made deals with all three major gangs. That evidence includes official documents from Bukele's own government, audio recordings of public officials discussing the matter with gang leaders, and now, video confessions from two of those criminals.
In interviews that took place in early January 2025, Charli and Liro claim that the three main gangs in El Salvador divided up $250,000, given to them by the former guerrilla party FMLN, to support the 2014 presidential candidacy of Salvador Sánchez Cerén and Nayib Bukele's bid for mayor of the capital. Cerén won those elections. Bukele, when he claimed to be a leftist, also won in 2015 by a margin of around 6,000 votes. The gang leaders reveal that they intimidated residents of their communities to vote for Bukele and blocked voters from other parties in various ways. Both detail for the first time that when Bukele became president in 2019, also with their support, they sealed agreements on homicides and extortion. Those agreements did not imply an absolute ban on killing or extortion, according to the gang members, but rather that it should be done strategically, so as not to give the Bukele administration a bad image.
They explain how control of the lockdown in their communities during the Covid-19 pandemic was entrusted to their criminal organizations, as well as the distribution of aid money to families during the public health emergency. Finally, they reveal how one of the two men was captured in 2022, when the pact with the gangs was broken and Bukele decreed the state of emergency that remains in force. In the months when Charli was captured and released after only three hours, thousands of Salvadorans were arrested for no reason: They had no criminal records or gang tattoos, unlike Charli. Liro recounts how he was taken out of the country in an official government car, by a Bukele official.
The videos, subtitled in English, were originally published by El Faro on May 1. The government's reaction included threats against the journalists who signed the article by some public officials, such as the director of the State Intelligence Agency (OIE); and, as this newspaper learned from sources with first-hand knowledge, the issuance of arrest warrants against at least seven journalists from the media outlet. So far, the Attorney General's Office, controlled by Bukele since May 2021, has not responded to questions from this newspaper and other organizations in solidarity about these arrest warrants that seek to capture journalists as if they were gang members.
El Faro was only able to interview these gang leaders because they were helped to flee by the Salvadoran government. These interviews, combined with extensive journalistic evidence published by this newspaper over the years, make it clear that Bukele's political project to accumulate all power included an alliance with gangs for almost eight years, more than half of his time as a politician.
*To activate the English subtitles, select the gear button on the YouTube viewer interface and choose “English (United States)” from the closed caption menu.
Chapter 1: “Tell your mom, uncle, grandmother that they have to vote for Nayib”
Chapter 2: “No body, no crime”
Chapter 3: “When the call came in, they took off my handcuffs”