The monster and the boys

摘要

THE PRESIDENT of El Salvador, Nayib Bu-kele, has been "very tough" on the street gang MS-13-or so said Donald Trump last year. Murders have indeed fallen 80% since 2015, when El Salvador was the most violent country in the world (apart from conflict zones such as Syria). Mr Bukele attributes the improvement to a crackdown on MS-13 and its rival, Barrio 18. But prison logs and intelligence reports published on September 3rd by El Faro, a Salvadorean news site, suggest another explanation: that for 15 months Mr Bukele's government has secretly negotiated with MS-13's imprisoned leaders, granting perks in exchange for keeping murders down.