Update: Agreement with Maras in El Salvador?

Former congressman and ex-guerrilla leader Raúl Mijango, who claims to have been one of the negotiators of a peace between MS 13 and Mara 18 in El Salvador, issued a statement reinforcing claims made by a Catholic bishop attributing falling homicide rates in El Salvador to this peace agreement.  The statement included words reportedly written in collaboration with both MS 13 and Mara 18 (as translated by insightcrime.org):

Since last year we have begun internally a deep process of reflection and analysis of the serious and pressing problems facing our country, of which we have been part, as a consequence of the war that we have been forced to fight due to social exclusion, marginalization, repression, and the need for survival...

We have not negotiated anything with this government, nor do we ask to, we are tired of corrupt and lying politicians ... that's why this time to accompany our process of reflection we preferred to ask for the assistance of the Church and civil society...

They have made it possible that after 20 years we have been able to reach an agreement between the two rival gangs where we have managed ... to significantly reduce the murders in the country, and, in a gesture of goodwill, to cancel all actions that include attacks against soldiers, police and guards.

 An article in El Faro reports that Mijango's statement criticizes EL Faro's coverage of an alleged agreement between the street gangs and the government. The statement called the newspaper irresponsible and unprofessional. You can see the full statement (in Spanish) by following the link to the article in El Faro.

Obviously, there is more going on here than you or I, as outsiders, can see. I have to admit I was more inclined to believe the original story of the government brokering a deal with the gangs at first, mostly because I see El Faro as one of the few trustworthy (or at least less blatantly biased) news sources in El Salvador. Yet the missive detailing the Church/civil society led true seems genuine. I wonder what prompted El Faro to run with this story. Was it so difficult to find out about a Church brokered truce? Were they obliviously ignorant of what was going on? Were they journalists misled? Or is this the truth that is now getting covered over? If this type of story had happened in Guatemala, there would already be loud accusations of the "opposition" trying to destabilize the government. But politics operate differently in El Salvador (to some extent at least, especially because there are somewhat stable political parties and the party in power at the moment was in the opposition for so long). I'll write more on this as things unfold, for those who are interested.