I'm having a hard time following the story on Ángel Gabriel Reyes, one of the national leaders of Mara Salvatrucha in Guatemala (un ranflero (cabecilla nacional) de la clica Locos Centrales Salvatruchas y su principal zona de operación es el municipio y departamento de Chimaltenango). He had been in a Guatemalan prison since December. While out on a medical visit earlier this week, however, three armed men freed him. They also took the guards' AK-47 and 9mm pistol (not sure if plural).
According to this article from El Periodico, Reyes was expelled from El Salvador after completing a ten-year prison sentence for his involvement in the murder of 237 people. That sure seems like very few years for such a rap sheet. While life imprisonment is not always the solution, how does someone directly involved in the murder of 237 people only receive a ten-year sentence?
However, in this other article, Reyes, another Guatemalan gang leader, and five Salvadorans were arrested on November 20th as they traveled with false documents from Guatemala to El Salvador to meet with other gang leaders from Centrales Locos Salvatruchas. This particularly click is known for running arms trafficking and extortion rings out of San Salvador. After Reyers' arrest on lesser charges in El Salvador (illicit association), he was handed over to Interpol which handed him off to Guatemalan authorities. Prensa Libre reported in February that he had been arrested November 26th in El Salvador because of his tattoos which I imagine is their way of saying illicit association. The men were originally stopped, it seems, because they were driving with their headlights off. Finally, this Prensa Libre article makes no mention of the circumstances surrounding his arrest, just his escape.
I'm guessing that the El Periodico article simply had this (En septiembre de 2013, Reyes fue expulsado de El Salvador, luego de cumplir una condena de diez años por el delito de asesinato de 237 personas) wrong. He was wanted in Guatemala for assassination; he hadn't served anytime, other than preventive holding, in El Salvador.
Anyway, his arrest and deportation is a strong sign of cooperation between El Salvador and Guatemalan authorities. He could have been prosecuted on lesser charges in El Salvador and then simply disappeared but he was sent to the country where the charges were more serious. Bilateral cooperation and regional cooperation is another challenge that the Central American, Mexican, and US governments need to continue to improve upon.
However, the fact that one of the national leaders of the MS-13 in Guatemala can be freed within months of his arrest while going for some food during a medical exam is unacceptable. El Salvador and the US have their own problems but why are they going to trust the Guatemalan authorities and penitentiary system when individuals wanted in the murders of over 200 people can so easily escape?
Overcrowding, deplorable conditions, and too many people spending years in a jail without trial are three problems that get the most attention when looking at Central American prison conditions. However, it is clear in Guatemala that another problem is the fact the prisons do not have the resources to medically treat inmates. They need to transport prisoners to facilities in other parts of the country. That led to Reyes' escape and to problems related to Byron Lima leaving prison whenever he wanted. I can't say that we should expect prisons to be staffed with medical professionals anytime soon, but we are likely to continue to read stories about people escaping until they do.
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