Update up on Padre Toño's arrest for helping Viejo Lin

Insight Crime has an update on the arrest of Padre Toño in El Salvador.

Spanish priest Father Antonio Rodriguez was detained on July 30 on charges of bringing illegal objects into the country's prisons, illicit association and influence trafficking. The objects in question allegedly included drugs, cash and cell phones brought into the Cojutepeque and Izalco prisons, according to La Pagina. 

According to the Attorney General's Office, the actions of Rodriguez -- who is popularly known as "Padre Toño" -- helped gang members continue committing crimes. Based on recordings of telephone conversations, the body claims he worked with imprisoned Barrio 18 gang leader Carlos Ernesto Mojica Lechuga, alias "El Viejo Lin," performing favors such as prisoner transfers on his behalf and bringing in cell phones used to commit extortion, reported La Prensa Grafica.

Following protests in support of the priest a San Salvador court granted him conditional liberty on August 4 as proceedings continue, reported El Diario de Hoy.

Padre Toño claims that his arrest is political persecution. According to the Insight article, the author believes that his arrest might have been part of an effort to "push certain players out of any future negotiation process."

Padre Toño's arrest suggests the new government of President Salvador Sanchez Ceren is looking to push his team -- and by extension possibly Perdomo -- out of the process. While they have not said they will formally support Mijango and Colindres, Security Minister Benito Lara said in July the government would not block any attempts at gang negotiations. 

Honestly, very little makes sense to me right now. Perhaps the audio recordings between the priest and Viejo Lin will shed some light on the situation. We are also likely to learn more from the legal proceedings against the other 127 people arrested in the recent sweep. Thirty-seven of those arrested, like Padre Toño, are tied to an extortion ring run by Viejo Lin.

I'm also not entirely sure that the arrests are necessarily part of a Sanchez Ceren plan as Insight suggests rather than an operation driven more independently by the Fiscal General Luis Martínez.