Las Guatemalan authorities They handed over to El Salvador an alleged leader of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) gang, whom they accused of being the intellectual author of the escalation of murders that occurred in March 2022 that led to the Nayib Bukele Government requesting to implement an emergency regime to combat the gangs, and which has continued since then with more than 78,000 arrests.
A source from the press office of the Communications Secretariat of the Presidency confirmed the arrest to EFE this Tuesday, while the director of the National Civil Police (PNC), Mauricio Arriaza Chicas, released a video of the gang member’s surrender by of the Guatemalan authorities.
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“One of those who ordered the increase in homicides in March/22 has been captured. This is Héctor Oswaldo González Pérez, alias ‘Cruel de Western’, ranflero (leader) of the MS,” the police chief published in X.
He noted that “the capture of this terrorist, apart from the intelligence work of the PNC, occurred in coordination with the Mexican and Guatemalan authorities.”
Arriaza Chicas published on his X account two videos showing first the handover of the gang leader by Mexico to the Guatemalan Police and then to the Salvadoran security forces.
Government officials of El Salvador also released photographs of the detainee in the custody of two PNC agents.
As a result of the work coordination between INTERPOL Mexico and INTERPOL Guatemala, at the El Carmen, Malacatán, San Marcos border they handed over the Salvadoran Héctor Oswaldo González Pérez, 32 years old, to be placed at the disposal of the Salvadoran authorities. pic.twitter.com/tYu6Umb5ai
— PNC of Guatemala (@PNCofGuatemala) March 12, 2024
Exception regime in El Salvador
In March 2022, El Salvador experienced the most violent days of the Nayib Bukele Administration with more than 80 murders in three days, which led the Government to ask the Legislative Assembly to decree an emergency regime.
This measure, accused of violating rights but which increases Bukele’s popularity, leaves more than 78,100 arrests and was extended 24 times for periods of 30 days by the pro-government majority Congress.
Bukele based his re-election campaign in the last February 4 elections on this policy, which has broad support from the population, despite the constitutional prohibition on running for a second term.
Within the framework of this regime, humanitarian organizations have received more than 6,000 complaints of human rights violations, mainly due to arbitrary detentions and torture.
Deaths of detainees in state custody exceed 200, while international organizations, such as Amnesty International, warn that in impoverished communities gang violence has been replaced by state violence.
According to investigations by local media El Faro, this escalation of homicides occurred after the breakdown of a pact between the Government and criminal gangs, and the United States Government has even sanctioned two senior officials of Bukele’s Executive for supposedly organizing negotiations with The gang.
