How a US ambassador allegedly shielded El Salvador's Bukele from legislation enforcement

 By T. Christian Miller, Sebastian Rotella, Kirsten Berg and Brett Murphy for ProPublica  

In August 2020, the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, went to the U.S. ambassador with a unprecedented request. Salvadoran authorities had intercepted a dialog between a journalist and a U.S. embassy contractor about corruption amongst high-level aides to the president.

The contractor, a U.S. citizen, was no peculiar supply. He collaborated with U.S. and Salvadoran investigators who had been focusing on the president’s internal circle. Over the earlier 12 months, he had helped an FBI-led job drive uncover a suspected alliance between the Bukele authorities and the MS-13 road gang, which was accountable for murders, rapes and kidnappings in the USA. He had labored to assemble proof that the president’s aides had secretly met with gang bosses in jail and agreed to provide them cash and safety in trade for a discount in violence. The data posed a risk to the Bukele authorities.

Bukele wished the contractor overseas — and in Ambassador Ronald D. Johnson, he had a robust American good friend. Johnson was a former CIA officer and appointee of President Donald Trump serving in his first diplomatic publish. He had cultivated a strikingly shut relationship with the Salvadoran president. After Bukele supplied Johnson with the recordings, the ambassador instantly ordered an investigation that resulted within the contractor’s dismissal.

Ronald Johnson testifies throughout a Senate Overseas Relations Committee listening to on March 14.

It was not the one favor Johnson did for Bukele, in accordance with a ProPublica investigation based mostly on a beforehand undisclosed report by the State Division’s inspector normal and interviews with U.S. and Salvadoran officers. The dismissal of the contractor was a part of a sample during which Johnson has been accused of protecting Bukele from U.S. and Salvadoran legislation enforcement, ProPublica discovered. Johnson did little to pursue the extradition to the USA of an MS-13 boss who was a possible witness to the key gang pact and a high goal of the FBI-led job drive, officers mentioned.

After he stepped down as ambassador, Johnson continued his help for the Salvadoran president regardless of the Biden administration’s efforts to curb Bukele’s rising authoritarianism. He additionally performed a distinguished function in making Bukele Trump’s favourite Latin American chief, in accordance with interviews and public data.

Johnson’s tight friendship with Bukele troubled high State Division officers within the Biden administration, who requested his successor, Jean Manes, to look into the firing of the contractor. She reached a blunt conclusion, in accordance with the inspector normal’s report: “Bukele requested Johnson remove [the contractor] and that was what happened.”

“Manes explained that [the contractor] was working on anti-corruption cases against individuals close to El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and Manes believed removing [him] was a way to ensure the investigations stopped,” the report mentioned.

Associated | How El Salvador’s authorities impeded a US probe of MS-13

ProPublica has additionally discovered that Manes’ overview led to an excessive measure: She pressured the ouster of the CIA station chief, a longtime good friend of Johnson, as a result of she felt he was “too close” to Bukele, in accordance with the inspector normal report. Senior State Division and White Home officers mentioned they suspected that Johnson’s persevering with relationships with the station chief and Bukele fomented resistance throughout the embassy to the brand new U.S. coverage confronting the Salvadoran president over corruption and democracy points, in accordance with interviews.

“Manes would go see Bukele to convey U.S. concerns about some of his policies. Then the station chief would go see him and say the opposite,” mentioned Juan Sebastian Gonzalez, who obtained common briefings in regards to the embassy as the previous senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs on the Nationwide Safety Council.

ProPublica is just not figuring out the previous station chief or the contractor to guard their security.

After battling Bukele in public and her personal embassy in personal, Manes introduced a pause in diplomatic relations and left El Salvador in late 2021. Days later, Johnson posted a photograph on LinkedIn that despatched a defiant message to the Biden administration: It confirmed him and Bukele smiling with their households in entrance of a Christmas tree on the Johnson residence in Miami.

The bond between the 2 males was on the middle of a fierce political battle that unfold in Washington, San Salvador and Miami. As we speak, Johnson and Bukele — as soon as minor gamers in U.S. overseas affairs — have emerged from the fray triumphant. On April 9, the Senate confirmed Johnson as ambassador to Mexico, arguably an important U.S. embassy in Latin America. On April 14, Trump met with Bukele within the White Home to rejoice an settlement that may permit the U.S. to deport a whole bunch of immigrants to a Salvadoran megaprison, elevating the worldwide stature of the chief of one of many hemisphere’s smallest and poorest international locations.

Ronald Johnson, who was confirmed as U.S. ambassador to Mexico on April 9, speaks at his residence in Mexico Metropolis on June 26.

Johnson’s detractors accuse him of championing Bukele regardless of his rising abuses of energy.

“We didn’t have a credible or effective U.S. representative in that country. We had a mouthpiece for the government of El Salvador,” mentioned Tim Rieser, a longtime overseas coverage aide to former Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat.

Johnson’s defenders argue that his sturdy ties to the Salvadoran president benefited U.S. coverage goals. Upon arriving in El Salvador, Johnson advised his employees that he wished Bukele’s help in lowering U.S.-bound immigration, the Trump administration’s high precedence with the nation.

“During Trump and Johnson’s time, the thinking was let El Salvador be El Salvador,” mentioned Carlos Ortiz, the previous attache for the Division of Homeland Safety on the embassy, who describes himself as a good friend and admirer of Johnson. “Let them deal with their own corruption. The U.S. focus was migration.”

A State Division spokesperson mentioned it was “false” that Johnson had blocked or impeded any legislation enforcement efforts with a view to shield Bukele or his allies and that the allegations made by Manes within the inspector normal report had been unfaithful.

As well as, Tommy Pigott, the division’s principal deputy spokesperson, praised Johnson for having “always prioritized our national interests and the safety of the American people above all else.”

“Thanks to President Trump’s and President Bukele’s strong leadership, we are ensuring our region is safer from the menace of vicious criminal gangs,” Pigott mentioned. “Secretary Rubio looks forward to continuing to work with regional allies, including the Salvadoran government, in our joint efforts to counter illegal immigration and to advance mutual interests.”

The division supplied a written assertion from Johnson highlighting the Salvadoran president’s achievements.

“Our cordial relationship was based on honest and frank dialogue to advance issues of mutual benefit for both of our nations,” Johnson mentioned. “President Bukele has continued to maintain widespread popularity and high approval ratings in his homeland. He transformed El Salvador from the murder capital of the world to one of the safest countries worldwide.”

Spokespeople for the CIA and Justice Division declined to remark. The White Home referred inquiries to the State Division. The Salvadoran authorities didn’t reply to requests for remark.

The Gang Pact

Manes had the weird distinction of serving as the highest U.S. diplomat in El Salvador twice — as soon as earlier than Johnson and as soon as after.

She first arrived in El Salvador in 2016, as an appointee of President Barack Obama. It was her first ambassadorship. Manes earned a level in overseas coverage from Liberty College, the evangelical Christian school based by Jerry Falwell, the tv preacher and activist, and a grasp’s diploma from American College in Washington, D.C. She joined the State Division in 1992 and served in cultural, academic and public affairs posts in a number of Latin American international locations in addition to in Afghanistan and Syria. Though extra politically conservative than a lot of her diplomatic colleagues, she developed a repute as a nonpartisan, hard-edged skilled. Manes declined to remark for this text.

When Manes arrived, Bukele, the son of a rich govt of Palestinian descent, was mayor of San Salvador. Manes and Bukele obtained alongside properly. In 2019, the 37-year-old Bukele ran for president as a populist outsider promising to defeat crime and corruption in a nation with one of many world’s worst murder charges and a historical past of former presidents being charged with crimes. His political coalition defeated the standard energy blocs of left and proper. Essentially the most harmful nationwide safety risk that the brand new president confronted was the MS-13 road gang, which the U.S. authorities had designated as a transnational prison group and the Salvadoran authorities as a terrorist group.

Manes admired Bukele’s reformist zeal, former colleagues mentioned. Throughout conversations after his election victory, Bukele assured her that he was dedicated to rooting out lawlessness, even in his personal celebration, and requested for the embassy’s help.

“Go after my people first, crack down on anyone who is corrupt, and on MS-13,” he mentioned, in accordance with a former U.S. official accustomed to the conversations.

Bukele, although, had already been publicly accused of reducing offers with MS-13 and one other gang whereas he was mayor. U.S. and Salvadoran investigators quickly discovered that the brand new president’s senior aides had entered into secret negotiations with the leaders of MS-13 who had been imprisoned in El Salvador, in accordance with U.S. court docket data, Treasury Division sanctions, interviews and information accounts.

Osiris Luna, Bukele’s jail director, and Carlos Marroquin, a presidential ally accountable for social welfare applications, reached an settlement with the gang’s ruling council, generally known as the Ranfla, in accordance with U.S. court docket paperwork and interviews with U.S. and Salvadoran legislation enforcement officers. It was a extra expansive deal than these struck by earlier Salvadoran governments, which had supplied the gang jailhouse perks equivalent to prostitutes and big-screen televisions. Marroquin and Luna haven’t responded to requests for remark.

The council, which managed tens of 1000’s of MS-13 members throughout the U.S., Mexico and Central America from jail, agreed to lower killings and supply votes for Bukele’s celebration in trade for monetary incentives and political affect. Based on court docket paperwork, the gang chiefs additionally requested the president’s males for an necessary assure: safety from extradition to the USA.

Murder charges quickly plummeted. As we speak, El Salvador is among the most secure international locations within the Americas, and Bukele is among the area’s hottest politicians. However the secret truce with the gangs made his authorities a goal of the FBI-led multi-agency crew, which was generally known as Joint Activity Pressure Vulcan.

Trump had vowed to defeat MS-13 throughout his marketing campaign and, in August 2019, created Vulcan to dismantle the gang. Its technique was much like the combat in opposition to Mexican cartels and Colombian narcoguerillas. Led by a Justice Division prosecutor in New York, the crew mixed brokers from the FBI, Homeland Safety Investigations and different companies based mostly round the USA and working in El Salvador and neighboring international locations.

Donald Trump meets with Nayib Bukele on the InterContinental Barclay New York resort through the United Nations Basic Meeting in Sept. 2019.

The preliminary focus was to construct circumstances in opposition to gang bosses on racketeering, terrorism and drug prices and extradite them to the USA. Quickly, although, leads from informants and wiretaps spurred federal brokers to increase their investigation to look at the offers between the gang and high Bukele officers, in accordance with interviews and U.S. court docket data. As ProPublica has beforehand reported, Vulcan brokers even filed a request with the Treasury Division to canvass U.S. banks for any indicators that Bukele and different Salvadoran political figures near him had laundered U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement funds as a part of the cope with MS-13. The results of that request is unclear.

Vulcan additionally cooperated with a crew of Salvadoran prosecutors who had been accumulating their very own proof in regards to the gang pact and a community of suspected graft that allegedly included the president’s internal circle.

The potential revelation of a secret deal posed a risk to Bukele as a result of it may undermine his repute as a crimefighter and expose him to doable prison prices within the U.S. and El Salvador.

The Friendship

A month after the launch of the duty drive, Johnson succeeded Manes as ambassador.

He knew El Salvador, having led fight operations there as an Military Inexperienced Beret — considered one of 55 U.S. army advisers to the Salvadoran armed forces within the bloody civil conflict in opposition to leftist rebels within the Eighties, in accordance with former U.S. officers and an on-line biography of Johnson.

“One of my specific tasks was to teach the soldiers respect for human rights,” Johnson mentioned in his written response to ProPublica.

After rising to the rank of colonel, Johnson left the Military in 1998 and joined the CIA for a second profession that included assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan and at U.S. Southern Command and U.S. Particular Operations Command in Florida.

Johnson and Bukele got here from completely different worlds. Johnson, now 73, grew up in Alabama. He was a religious Christian, favored fits and ties, and spoke with a Southern drawl. “I was raised in a small town and I was honored to work in the military as well as the CIA,” Johnson mentioned in his assertion to ProPublica.

Pictures from early in his profession present Johnson posing with weapons and fellow commandos in Latin America and different locales. As ambassador, he as soon as parachuted out of a aircraft at a Salvadoran airshow.

Bukele was greater than 20 years youthful. He cultivated a hip picture, carrying denims, colourful socks and an assortment of sun shades. He was adept at speaking on social media and posted steadily on X. He talked about reinventing his strife-torn nation as a mecca for bitcoin, browsing and tourism.

Virtually instantly, although, it turned clear the 2 had buena onda — a very good vibe. Quickly after his arrival, Johnson posted an X message quoting Bukele.

“I believe that with the United States, we have an alliance,” it learn. “But I believe that with Ambassador Johnson and his wife, Alina, we will have a personal friendship.” Johnson shared the sentiment. In a current interview, he recalled that he had “developed a very close personal relationship” with the president.

About three weeks after Johnson turned ambassador, Bukele visited Trump in New York — the primary Latin American chief to carry an official one-on-one assembly with the president in his first time period. Trump lauded Bukele for being an enthusiastic ally in combating MS-13 and in containing unlawful immigration flows in Central America. In a publish on X, Johnson declared, “If this isn’t a demonstration of the strength of our bilateral relationship, I don’t know what is.”

“Johnson was very successful in El Salvador, in developing a relationship with Bukele, in convincing Trump that El Salvador mattered,” mentioned Thomas Shannon Jr., a former high-ranking U.S. diplomat who has labored in Washington as a lobbyist for the Bukele authorities.

Johnson and Bukele documented their rising friendship on social media. One publish confirmed Johnson and his spouse boating with Bukele and his household on an estuary in El Salvador. One other confirmed the ambassador and president consuming cracked stone crab claws at a restaurant. They held joint press conferences and infrequently dined collectively, in accordance with interviews. Johnson’s embrace of the president struck a few of his critics in El Salvador and Washington as extreme for a diplomat.

“Johnson insinuated himself into Bukele’s family and circle in a way that made some people in the U.S. government at the time uncomfortable,” Shannon mentioned.

Others, nevertheless, believed that Johnson used his entry as leverage in coping with Bukele.

“He was trying to use his relationship in order to advance U.S. policy and U.S. objectives,” mentioned a former embassy worker who served throughout Johnson’s ambassadorship. “He did so in a much more personal way.”

Johnson’s strategy mirrored his expertise cultivating sources as a former intelligence officer, however that didn’t imply he was at all times in management, mentioned a former Trump administration official accustomed to the matter.

“Johnson wasn’t just recruiting Bukele. What’s remarkable is that Bukele was recruiting him,” the official mentioned. “They were recruiting each other. It was a relationship in which Bukele had power.”

The Dismissal

Because the friendship blossomed, U.S. embassy officers saved Johnson knowledgeable in regards to the rising proof of the gang pact and high-level corruption, in accordance with former U.S. officers. Officers in legislation enforcement and intelligence briefed the ambassador usually, the officers mentioned.

In mid-2020, investigators had a serious breakthrough.

Luna, the president’s nationwide director of prisons, made contact with U.S. embassy legislation enforcement officers, in accordance with former U.S. officers accustomed to the case. Throughout a gathering at a discreet website, he admitted that he was a part of talks with the gang however mentioned that he was following Bukele’s orders, the officers mentioned. He mentioned the chance of giving testimony as a protected witness in trade for him and his household being dropped at the USA.

Luna’s reluctance to testify in opposition to Bukele in a U.S. court docket precipitated the deal to fall via, however Vulcan investigators now had an insider account implicating the president, officers mentioned.

“It was huge,” mentioned a former official accustomed to the case. “One of the strongest keys was when Osiris tells us, ‘I want you to know this isn’t me negotiating with gangs. This is Bukele’ — and other top aides — ‘and I don’t want to be the fall guy for them.’”

Bukele has publicly denied such allegations and has not been charged.

That August, a reporter for El Faro, a distinguished investigative information outlet, was chasing an unique story to reveal the gang pact. The story would characteristic voluminous proof, together with Salvadoran intelligence stories, authorities paperwork and even jail logs recording the visits of Luna and different Bukele aides to MS-13 leaders.

Bukele had been waging a harassment marketing campaign in opposition to El Faro, which had aggressively lined corruption in his authorities. His safety forces had put in Pegasus, the Israeli adware, on the telephones of some reporters, in accordance with interviews and an investigation by researchers from the College of Toronto’s Citizen Lab.

One of many intercepted conversations was between the journalist and the U.S. embassy contractor. Nicely revered on the embassy and amongst Salvadoran officers, the contractor oversaw U.S.-funded cooperation applications for the State Division’s Bureau of Worldwide Narcotics and Legislation Enforcement Affairs. The American was working intently with the Vulcan investigators within the U.S. and El Salvador in addition to the Salvadoran prosecutors collaborating with the duty drive. The intercepts indicated that he was offering info to the reporter, in accordance with the inspector normal report and interviews. ProPublica has discovered that the contractor relayed info together with handwritten Salvadoran paperwork in regards to the gang negotiations.

After Bukele requested for the contractor’s removing, Johnson ordered an investigation by embassy safety officers. They decided that the contractor had unauthorized contact with the El Faro reporter and that he had misled them in regards to the contact, in accordance with the inspector normal’s report.

However there was one thing else: The U.S. safety officers additionally apprehensive about doable retaliation in opposition to the contractor. It was a exceptional acknowledgement that the Bukele authorities would possibly resort to harming an American working for the embassy, particularly given the president’s friendship with Johnson, in accordance with the report and interviews.

The embassy safety workplace’s “biggest concern, though, was [the contractor’s] safety because” his “statements to the press upset the El Salvadoran government and there was concern that [he] became a target of the El Salvadoran government,” the report mentioned.

On account of the investigation, embassy officers determined to not renew the worker’s contract, successfully dismissing him. He left the nation on the path of his supervisors in Washington inside weeks of Bukele’s dialog with Johnson. The contractor retained a very good repute in Washington and has continued to work for the State Division on abroad assignments.

Information of the case ricocheted amongst Latin America specialists working within the White Home, Capitol Hill and suppose tanks.

“It is highly, highly abnormal for an ambassador to dismiss an embassy staffer at the request of a foreign president,” mentioned a former Hill staffer.

Senior U.S. officers questioned Johnson’s dealing with of the incident.

“Johnson’s reaction should have been, why are you spying on my staff? That’s the right answer for any U.S. ambassador,” mentioned a former State Division official accustomed to embassy operations in El Salvador.

In response to questions in regards to the incident, the State Division mentioned the “surveillance of U.S. personnel is not tolerated.”

In her overview of the case, Manes would later specific concern about “the issue of a foreign president requesting the removal of an embassy employee,” in accordance with the inspector normal report. She mentioned the worker spoke usually with the press as a part of his job, “so that was not a deal-breaker,” in accordance with the report. She was “not convinced [he] provided false statements” through the inquiry ordered by Johnson.

Manes questioned whether or not the contractor “had been let go appropriately, or had been unjustifiably removed at the request of Bukele.” She mentioned she was unable to reply that query “with the information provided to her,” in accordance with the report.

Johnson commented in regards to the matter this 12 months throughout his Senate affirmation listening to. Questioned by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the rating Democrat on the Senate Overseas Relations Committee, he defended himself however made no point out of Bukele’s function within the contractor’s departure.

“I was a little surprised when I heard that he had had an unauthorized meeting with a member of the press,” Johnson testified, “and I did what I think any manager would do at that point. I called in his department heads and I called in security and I said, ‘We need to investigate this and determine whether or not these accusations are true. And if they are true, I think we need to determine what kind of information might have been passed.’ And I deferred to his boss, really, as to what the final disposition should be in that case.”

The contractor’s removing led to a decline in U.S. embassy cooperation with Salvadoran anti-corruption prosecutors who had been funded, skilled and assisted by the State Division and different companies, a former Salvadoran official advised ProPublica.

“Nobody really replaced him,” the previous legislation enforcement official mentioned. “He was the most active of the Americans working with us.”

“El Salvador’s Battles”

Different occasions deepened issues about whether or not Johnson was shielding Bukele and his allies from U.S. and Salvadoran legislation enforcement.

Johnson made clear to embassy employees that the Trump administration’s high concern in El Salvador was cooperation on immigration. In 2018, Trump had accused the Salvadoran authorities of letting MS-13 “killers” return to the USA after their deportation.

“El Salvador just takes our money,” Trump had declared in a publish on X.

After Bukele turned president, the governments signed an settlement permitting the U.S. to ship refugees looking for asylum to El Salvador to await the end result of their circumstances there. The Bukele authorities additionally deployed greater than 1,000 officers to the border with Guatemala to stop the smuggling of U.S.-bound migrants. And Salvadoran authorities permitted the continued arrival of U.S. deportation flights through the pandemic.

Because of this, Bukele’s standing on the White Home elevated. Through the early days of COVID-19, Trump advised Bukele in a cellphone name that the U.S. would donate a whole bunch of ventilators to El Salvador. Trump mentioned on X, “They have worked well with us on immigration at the Southern Border!”

Johnson appeared to point out much less curiosity within the Vulcan investigation, former U.S. officers mentioned. “We are not here to fight El Salvador’s battles,” Johnson would inform embassy workers.

“His general demeanor was do not push things that upset Bukele — he is our No. 1 ally on migration,” a former U.S. official mentioned.

Considered one of Vulcan’s early accomplishments was the primary use of terrorism prices in opposition to an MS-13 chief. The allegations in opposition to Armando Melgar Díaz, alias Blue, included kidnapping, drug trafficking and approving the homicide of U.S. residents. Trump even had a press convention to announce the indictment. Prosecutors despatched the Bukele authorities an extradition request for Melgar, who was jailed in El Salvador on the time, in accordance with Salvadoran court docket data.

In a publish on X from his official embassy account, Johnson promised that Melgar was going to “face justice thanks to cooperation between authorities.”

Regardless of that pledge, months handed with out progress. U.S. and Salvadoran officers apprehensive that Johnson was not making use of strain on Bukele a couple of request that Vulcan investigators anticipated to be an “easy win.”

“Ron Johnson didn’t do much to extradite Blue,” mentioned a former State Division official with data of the embassy. The Bukele authorities finally denied the request. U.S. legislation enforcement officers suspected that Melgar knew inside particulars in regards to the secret gang pact. He’s believed to stay in a Salvadoran jail.

Johnson was additionally not fully forthcoming in communications again to Washington, D.C., in accordance with the previous official, who mentioned embassy employees advised him that the ambassador blocked info in diplomatic cables in regards to the pact between Bukele and MS-13.

“It was pretty clear that Ronald Johnson was so close that he absolutely did protect Bukele from allegations that Bukele was negotiating with the gangs,” the previous official mentioned.

Ortiz, the previous DHS attache, defended Johnson. “Ambassador Johnson wouldn’t shelter Bukele,” he mentioned. As “a former CIA officer, he knew how to navigate where he was close to someone but not cover for them. His interest was the interest of the United States, and the U.S. had a great relationship with El Salvador.”

Critics mentioned Johnson’s hands-off strategy was evident in his response to the most important political disaster of his tenure. In February 2020, the Salvadoran legislature resisted Bukele’s proposal to hunt a $109 million mortgage from the Central American Financial institution for Financial Integration for brand new autos and tools for the police and army. The president responded by calling a particular session and flooding the meeting with armed troops.

Many Salvadorans and human rights advocates had been aghast on the sight of troopers making an attempt to strain the lawmakers. It evoked Latin America’s bleak historical past of dictatorial rule. On the time, the U.S. Embassy denied any function.

“Neither Ambassador Johnson nor any Embassy official had prior knowledge of what was to happen,” the embassy mentioned in a assertion to El Faro after the incident.

Throughout his Senate listening to this 12 months, although, Johnson admitted that he had talked with Bukele simply earlier than he despatched within the troops. Johnson testified that he privately urged the president to chorus from the army present of drive.

“Something that few people know is that I was in contact with him moments before he made the decision, and I was telling him not to go. ‘Do not do this,’” he advised lawmakers. He additionally testified that he had criticized Bukele in public.

For human rights advocates, Johnson’s reluctance to forcefully criticize Bukele on the time was an indication of his undue deference to the Salvadoran chief.

“Johnson was an ally of the president and not civil society, not the democratic forces in the country,” mentioned Noah Bullock, the manager director of Cristosal, a number one human rights group. “There was no distance between him and Bukele.”

Johnson’s time period ended after solely 17 months, when President Joe Biden took workplace in January 2021. Earlier than Johnson left, Bukele created El Salvador’s highest honor and made the ambassador the primary recipient of the Grand Order of Francisco Morazán.

“A great friend is leaving,” Bukele declared on the ambassador’s farewell ceremony.

Manes Returns

A bit of greater than three months after Johnson’s departure, Bukele unleashed an assault on the judiciary. The Salvadoran legislature, dominated by the president’s ruling coalition, eliminated 5 Supreme Court docket justices and the legal professional normal. At the least eight Salvadoran officers who had been investigating MS-13 and corruption, together with some who had labored with Vulcan brokers, fled the nation after threats, harassment, and searches of their houses and workplaces.

Critics in El Salvador declared that the president had engineered a “self-coup.” Bukele started calling himself the “world’s coolest dictator.”

Newly put in Biden administration officers watched the disaster with alarm. Involved that Bukele was turning El Salvador into an autocracy, they broke with Trump’s coverage.

Quickly after the purge of the judiciary, State Division officers introduced they had been sending Manes again to El Salvador because the interim chargé d’affaires, the time period for a brief ambassador. They directed her to face as much as Bukele, in accordance with the inspector normal’s report and interviews. Her superiors noticed her as a pure alternative due to her constructive relationship with Bukele throughout her time period as ambassador.

“She was brought back as a message that we won’t have business as had been conducted,” mentioned a former high-ranking State Division official.

A high State Division official requested her to conduct an “assessment” of the embassy, together with the contractor’s dismissal, in accordance with the inspector normal report and interviews. The official advised her he had issues “about the dynamics” on the embassy, the report mentioned. Gonzalez, the previous Nationwide Safety Council official, mentioned senior policymakers thought that embassy employees had been displaying favoritism to Bukele, sending stories that minimized the rising disaster of democracy in El Salvador.

Upon arriving on the embassy, Manes ran up in opposition to a bunch of senior employees, principally legislation enforcement and intelligence officers who weren’t members of the Vulcan job drive. She accused them of undercutting her management due to their loyalty to Johnson and rapport with Bukele, in accordance with the report and interviews.

Manes laid out her findings about Johnson “loyalists” in a memo and different written communications, former officers mentioned. To regain management, she issued a drastic order: Embassy personnel “were not to have communications with Bukele government officials,” the inspector normal report mentioned. In apply, that meant the employees stopped assembly with senior Salvadoran officers and needed to get approval from Manes and her high deputies to have interaction with others, in accordance with former senior embassy officers.

A former senior embassy official criticized Manes’ dealing with of the feud. “It got pretty ugly,” the official mentioned in an interview. “She wanted to micromanage everything.”

One opponent was particularly nettlesome: the CIA station chief. Early in his tenure as ambassador, Johnson had helped safe his appointment to go the CIA station, former officers mentioned. Like Johnson, he had served as a army adviser in El Salvador years earlier. Additionally, like Johnson, the station chief had an unusually pleasant relationship with Bukele. Manes discovered that he was assembly with Bukele frequently, typically having breakfast with him. Bukele would additionally go to the station chief’s residence, in accordance with a former U.S. official.

“Former Ambassador Johnson and the section chief were close friends and were close to Bukele and members of Bukele’s government,” an embassy worker later advised an investigator, in accordance with the inspector normal report.

Moderately than help the brand new mission to confront Bukele over backsliding on human rights and democracy, the CIA officer defended the president, former U.S. officers mentioned.

“He tried very hard to undermine the notion that Bukele was consolidating and centralizing power or acting to dismantle Salvadoran institutions,” mentioned the previous State Division official accustomed to the embassy.

The interlocking friendships amongst Johnson, the station chief and Bukele led Biden administration officers to consider the previous ambassador was influencing opposition to the brand new U.S. coverage — although they didn’t have concrete proof, former officers mentioned.

“We knew that Johnson and Bukele continued to talk,” Gonzalez mentioned. “The suspicion was that Johnson played a role in the dissidence at the embassy opposing Manes and favoring Bukele.”

After he stepped down as ambassador to El Salvador, Johnson made quite a few posts praising Bukele, together with this one from August 2024. 

Manes determined to demand that the CIA take away the station chief — an uncommon transfer, but it surely was inside her energy to withdraw approval for anybody assigned to the embassy. A senior CIA official questioned the choice, however Manes’ superiors held agency. The station chief was transferred to a different nation and has since retired, former officers mentioned.

The station chief filed a grievance with the State Division’s Workplace of the Inspector Basic, charging that Manes had unfairly dismissed him, amongst different allegations.

The ensuing report cleared Manes of wrongdoing. The previous station chief didn’t reply to an inventory of questions despatched by ProPublica.

Because the combat escalated throughout the embassy, Manes engaged in an more and more open conflict with Bukele. She criticized the alternative of the Supreme Court docket justices and the legal professional normal. She warned that the federal government was weakening democracy and human rights. And he or she known as for the extraditions of Melgar and different MS-13 senior leaders indicted by the Vulcan job drive.

“Extradition is something very important for the United States,” she advised the press.

As ProPublica has beforehand reported, the Bukele administration systematically interfered with extradition efforts and has not despatched to the U.S. any of the 27 MS-13 gang chiefs charged by Vulcan prosecutors in indictments in 2021 and 2023.

High State Division officers traveled to El Salvador to induce Bukele to reverse course. USAID minimize funding. Luna, Marroquin and different high-level Salvadoran officers had been hit with State Division sanctions that blocked their journey to the U.S.

Bukele didn’t budge. On X, he blasted Manes for interfering together with his nation’s inner politics. He revealed a string of private WhatsApp messages between them, accusing Manes of asking him to free a politician jailed on corruption prices.

In November 2021, Manes declared a “pause” in Washington’s relations with the Bukele administration and introduced that she was leaving her publish.

El Salvador and the U.S. had reached a diplomatic nadir. Greater than a 12 months would move earlier than a brand new ambassador was named.

“It’s impossible to think that someone has an interest in our relationship when they’re using their paid media machine to attack the United States every day,” Manes advised the press.

The Rehabilitation

Per week after Manes’ departure, Johnson posted the picture of himself posing with Bukele and their households in entrance of a Christmas tree.

“It was great to spend some time in our Miami home with El Salvadoran President Bukele,” Johnson wrote on a photograph he posted to his LinkedIn account.

On Christmas Eve, Johnson posted vacation needs to Bukele and his household. The Salvadoran president responded with a jab at Manes and the Biden administration: “Those were the times when ambassadors were sent to strengthen relations between nations.”

The trade was an early salvo in a marketing campaign not simply to rehabilitate Bukele’s repute in the USA however to make him a MAGA icon. Johnson helped lead this effort, which concerned legislators and lobbyists working in Washington, Florida and El Salvador.

It occurred because the Biden administration stepped up its confrontation with the Salvadoran president. In December 2021, the Treasury Division issued extra sanctions in opposition to Luna and Marroquin, alleging that the Bukele aides negotiated the key settlement with the MS-13 gang. In addition they accused Luna and the president’s chief of employees of corruption. Neither responded to requests for remark.

In a prison indictment, Vulcan prosecutors detailed alleged wrongdoing by senior Bukele officers and the gang’s promise to prove help for the president’s celebration in trade for monetary advantages and safety.

In March 2022, for causes that also stay unclear, the truce between the Salvadoran authorities and MS-13 fell aside. Throughout a three-day rampage of gang violence, some 80 individuals died — the deadliest days in El Salvador since its civil conflict. Bukele struck again with a coverage of mano dura — an iron fist. He suspended constitutional protections and rounded up accused gang members with out due course of. The safety forces arrested 70,000 individuals over the subsequent a number of years, locking up a lot of them in CECOT, the maximum-security jail.

Associated | Rubio praises deportation to ‘excellent prison system’ identified for abuse

The crackdown made Bukele enormously common in El Salvador. However senior Biden administration officers noticed it as an additional step towards the dismantling of the nation’s constitutional democracy. Even some within the GOP had misgivings. Then-Sen. Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican who was influential on Latin American points, expressed ambivalence about Bukele’s actions.

“I’m not a big fan of everything that’s been done out there,” he mentioned throughout a Senate listening to in 2022. “I’m hoping that we can still have a relationship in El Salvador that’s pragmatic. We don’t have to clap or celebrate all the stuff people do that we don’t necessarily think is good. But I also think we have a national interest concern there that needs to be balanced.”

By then, Johnson and others had been already deeply engaged in selling Bukele. Johnson praised the president’s marketing campaign advising Salvadorans on how you can keep wholesome throughout COVID-19. At Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, he met with El Salvador’s ambassador to the U.S., former magnificence queen Milena Mayorga. He continued posting about his visits with Bukele and his household.

Bukele enlisted Damian Merlo, a well known lobbyist for Latin American international locations and leaders, finally paying his agency greater than $2 million, in accordance with lobbying data. Merlo arrange conferences with Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, contacted State Division officers, and spoke to reporters at The New York Instances, Fox Information and different shops, lobbying data present. Bukele appeared on “Tucker Carlson Today.” Time journal featured him on its cowl, calling him “the world’s most popular authoritarian.” He spoke on the Conservative Political Motion Convention, the annual gathering of the nation’s most influential conservative politicians. Johnson attended, posting afterwards that Bukele had delivered “an incredible speech.”

“Johnson’s credibility and Merlo’s instincts helped Bukele connect with MAGA world,” mentioned Shannon, the previous diplomat and lobbyist. Merlo didn’t reply to an in depth set of questions from ProPublica.

A turning level got here in March 2023, when Rubio paid an official go to to El Salvador. No matter uncertainty he could have had in regards to the Salvadoran chief vanished after his return. Rubio lauded Bukele and mocked the Biden administration’s makes an attempt to strain him.

Marco Rubio meets with Nayib Bukele at his residence at Lake Coatepeque in El Salvador on Feb. 3.

“All of a sudden, the crime rate has plummeted. All of sudden, the murder rate has plummeted. All of a sudden, for the first time in decades, people can go out at night,” Rubio mentioned in a video posted on-line. “So how has the Biden administration reacted to this? By badmouthing the guy, by sanctioning people in the government, by going after them because they’re being too tough and too harsh.”

Johnson hailed Rubio’s newfound admiration.

“I want to thank my friend, Senator Marco Rubio, for going there to visit and for recognizing the progress made by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele,” he wrote on LinkedIn.

In September 2022, Bukele introduced his candidacy for reelection. The Salvadoran structure had restricted presidents to a single five-year time period, however the Supreme Court docket, full of Bukele allies, had allowed him to run once more. The choice set off a brand new spherical of protests.

Johnson defended the reelection bid throughout a hearth chat at a convention at Florida Worldwide College, the place he applauded El Salvador’s progress on safety.

“In some recent discussions that I had with people in Washington, D.C., we talked about a second term for President Bukele,” Johnson mentioned. “I said, ‘I think we’re focused on the wrong things. If he runs for a second term in a free and fair election and the people of El Salvador select him for a second term, then isn’t that we do here?’”

Bukele gained with 85% of the vote.

The visitor record for Bukele’s inauguration on June 1, 2024, illustrated his rising reputation with Republicans. Conservative luminaries together with Donald Trump Jr., Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Carlson confirmed up. So did Democratic Reps. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas and Lou Correa of California. Additionally in attendance had been Johnson and the previous CIA station chief.

Afterward, Johnson and Merlo helped prepare a non-public assembly with Bukele for Sara A. Carter, a former Fox information contributor whom Trump has since nominated to function director of the Workplace of Nationwide Drug Management Coverage. In a video podcast, Carter recounted a late-night meal of sushi with the Salvadoran president.

“We had the opportunity to meet with Bukele privately, our group, and I want to thank Ambassador Ron Johnson for that and Damian Merlo for that, for making that happen,” she mentioned.

Epilogue

This April, Trump and Bukele met to rejoice a partnership.

“It’s an honor to be here in the Oval Office with the president and leader of the free world,” the Salvadoran president mentioned as they shook fingers. “We know that you have a crime problem, a terrorism problem that you need help with, and we’re a small country, but if we can help, we will do it.”

Donald Trump meets with Nayib Bukele, as Marco Rubio and JD Vance pay attention, within the Oval Workplace on April 14.

Rubio, now secretary of state, and Bukele had reached an settlement during which the Trump administration would ship greater than 250 Venezuelan and Salvadoran immigrants to be detained in CECOT. (The Venezuelans had been returned to their nation in July.)

Bukele’s administration requested for the return to El Salvador of among the MS-13 gang leaders who had been arrested in Mexico and imprisoned in the USA. The federal prosecutors who had labored to deliver the bosses to justice requested a decide to launch two of them. Former Vulcan investigators mentioned they consider each have info tying Bukele aides to the gang pact.

Just a few days earlier than Bukele’s Oval Workplace assembly with Trump, the Senate authorized Johnson on a party-line 49-46 vote because the ambassador to Mexico. He stepped into the job at a time when the Trump administration’s hardline insurance policies — notably the prospect of unleashing U.S. army would possibly in opposition to drug cartels — have strained the at all times complicated relationship with Mexico.

“I’m eager to meet Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and ready to work with her administration on issues that are mutually beneficial to both our nations,” Johnson wrote on social media.

Manes’ profession has not fared as properly. In 2023, the Biden administration nominated her as ambassador to Colombia, one of many high diplomatic posts in Latin America. She appeared a robust candidate till Rubio and different Republicans on the Senate Overseas Relations Committee introduced their opposition. Sen. James E. Risch of Idaho cited the inspector normal investigation of Manes’ battle with the station chief as a cause.

“Staff on our side has received complaints about Ms. Manes’ leadership ability, interagency management style and judgment while serving as ambassador in charge in El Salvador,” Risch mentioned at a listening to.

Manes’ defenders identified she had been cleared by the inner inquiry and was implementing a coverage dictated from Washington.

“She was following a policy that was clearly the guidance of the administration,” a former senior State Division official mentioned in an interview. “It has become very difficult for career officers when their loyal service is seen in the political arena as unacceptable. It’s ironic, given her political views.”

As a substitute, Manes was named the U.S. consultant to UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural group in Paris that promotes science and the humanities.

This July, Trump introduced the U.S. would withdraw its participation within the group.

Mica Rosenberg contributed reporting, and Doris Burke contributed analysis.