While thousands of innocent people remain incarcerated in inhumane conditions in the prisons of El Salvador, one of the most recognized gang leaders in the Central American country, Carlos Cartagena López, aka Charli de IVU, was secretly released by the government of President Nayib Bukele and has since given an interview to the digital media El Faro in which he shows his face and shares details about his deals with the Bukele administration.
In a 41-minute interview, Charli, an important leader of the faction known as the Barrio 18 Revolutionaries, sits in a comfortable sand-colored chair wearing jeans, sneakers, a cap, and a black shirt that reads “Just Do It,” Nike’s slogan. Occasionally smiling, he provides details about how his gang began to approach Bukele’s circle, the favors he received, and how the gangs allegedly helped the president rise to power.
Óscar Martínez, editor-in-chief of El Faro and co-author of the article, told EL PAÍS that “[this interview] describes how gangs turned Bukele into a relevant politician. It allows us to reach the stark conclusions that it is impossible to understand Bukele’s rise to total power without his association with gangs.”
Bukele launched his so-called war against gangs on March 27, 2022, following a massacre of 87 people organized by criminal organizations across the country. According to journalistic investigations, this massacre occurred after the government’s secret pact with the Mara Salvatrucha 13 gang and the two factions of Barrio 18 was broken. Since then, nearly 85,000 people have been imprisoned in deplorable conditions, without the right to a legal defense, and nearly 400 of them have died without trial, many with signs of torture.
This Wednesday, another Salvadoran media outlet, the magazine Elementos, revealed that Charli was captured on April 21, 2022, at a police checkpoint, 25 days after the start of the state of emergency. But after just a few minutes, he was not only released but even “escorted to his home,” all due to “higher orders.” A day after the magazine story was published, the interview with Charli came out in El Faro. So far, Bukele has not reacted to either publication.
Charli became one of the most famous gang members in El Salvador after starring in the BBC miniseries Eighteen with a Bullet. In the series, Charli, at just 16 years old, already emerges as the leader of one of the most important strongholds of Barrio 18, the IVU neighborhood in the capital. In the video, he confesses to having committed several murders and other crimes. His criminal record has only lengthened over the years, and he is currently a fugitive from justice.
According to the magazine Elementos, at the time of her arrest, Charli was accused of one homicide and 46 extortions, including against a mayor’s office and two companies. During the state of emergency, but especially in those first months, authorities arrested thousands of people for reasons such as generic as being the target of an anonymous complaint, having artistic tattoos, being a relative or a neighbor of a gang member, or simply for getting nervous during a police search. Many of these people remain in prison, and others have died without being convicted of any crimes.
