The US Justice Department’s push to dismiss charges against a high-ranking MS-13 leader, Vladimir Antonio Arevalo-Chavez, and deport him to El Salvador is igniting fierce accusations of a cover-up. Unsealed court documents indicate prosecutors are citing “sensitive foreign policy considerations” and “geopolitical and national security concerns” for the move. However, critics claim the real motive is to prevent Arevalo-Chavez from revealing details about a secret 2019 pact between Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s government and the notorious gang.
Arevalo-Chavez, a member of MS-13’s “board of directors” (Ranfla Nacional), is privy to the alleged arrangement where Bukele’s administration provided funds and territory to the gang in exchange for peace and electoral backing. This proposed deportation appears to be part of a larger deal that grants the US access to El Salvador’s formidable Cecot prison for immigrant detention. The parallels to the recent quiet deportation of another Ranfla Nacional member with similar damaging information strengthen the argument that both the Trump and Bukele administrations are acting in concert to suppress crucial testimony.