How a U.S. Ambassador Allegedly Shielded President Bukele From Law Enforcement — 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 unusual supply. He collaborated with U.S. and Salvadoran investigators who had been focusing on the president’s inside circle. Over the earlier yr, he had helped an FBI-led activity drive uncover a suspected alliance between the Bukele authorities and the MS-13 road gang, which was liable for murders, rapes and kidnappings in america. He had labored to collect proof that the president’s aides had secretly met with gang bosses in jail and agreed to provide them cash and safety in alternate for a discount in violence. The data posed a menace to the Bukele authorities.

Bukele wished the contractor in another country — and in Ambassador Ronald D. Johnson, he had a strong American buddy. Johnson was a former CIA officer and appointee of President Donald Trump serving in his first diplomatic put up. 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.

It was not the one favor Johnson did for Bukele, in response to a ProPublica investigation primarily based 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 defending Bukele from U.S. and Salvadoran regulation enforcement, ProPublica discovered. Johnson did little to pursue the extradition to america of an MS-13 boss who was a possible witness to the key gang pact and a high goal of the FBI-led activity 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 outstanding function in making Bukele Trump’s favourite Latin American chief, in response to 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 response to the inspector normal’s report: “Bukele requested Johnson take away [the contractor] and that was what occurred.”

“Manes defined that [the contractor] was engaged on anti-corruption circumstances in opposition to people near El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and Manes believed eradicating [him] was a means to make sure the investigations stopped,” the report mentioned.

ProPublica has additionally discovered that Manes’ overview led to an excessive measure: She compelled the ouster of the CIA station chief, a longtime buddy of Johnson, as a result of she felt he was “too shut” to Bukele, in response to 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 response to interviews.

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

ProPublica shouldn’t be 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 house 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. At present, 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 have fun an settlement that might enable the U.S. to deport tons of of immigrants to a Salvadoran megaprison, elevating the worldwide stature of the chief of one of many hemisphere’s smallest and poorest international locations.

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

“We didn’t have a reputable or efficient U.S. consultant in that nation. We had a mouthpiece for the federal 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 targets. Upon arriving in El Salvador, Johnson advised his workers that he wished Bukele’s help in lowering U.S.-bound immigration, the Trump administration’s high precedence with the nation.

“Throughout Trump and Johnson’s time, the pondering 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 buddy and admirer of Johnson. “Allow them to cope with their very own corruption. The U.S. focus was migration.”

A State Division spokesperson mentioned it was “false” that Johnson had blocked or impeded any regulation enforcement efforts with a purpose 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 “all the time prioritized our nationwide pursuits and the protection of the American individuals above all else.”

“Due to President Trump’s and President Bukele’s sturdy management, we’re making certain our area is safer from the menace of vicious prison gangs,” Pigott mentioned. “Secretary Rubio appears ahead to persevering with to work with regional allies, together with the Salvadoran authorities, in our joint efforts to counter unlawful immigration and to advance mutual pursuits.”

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

“Our cordial relationship was primarily based on sincere and frank dialogue to advance problems with mutual profit for each of our nations,” Johnson mentioned. “President Bukele has continued to keep up widespread reputation and excessive approval scores in his homeland. He remodeled El Salvador from the homicide capital of the world to one of many most secure international locations 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, instructional and public affairs posts in a number of Latin American international locations in addition to in Afghanistan and Syria. Though extra politically conservative than lots of her diplomatic colleagues, she developed a status as a nonpartisan, hard-edged skilled. Manes declined to remark for this text.

When Manes arrived, Bukele, the son of a rich government of Palestinian descent, was mayor of San Salvador. Manes and Bukele bought alongside effectively. 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 menace 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 social gathering, and requested for the embassy’s help.

“Go after my individuals first, crack down on anybody who’s corrupt, and on MS-13,” he mentioned, in response to a former U.S. official aware of the conversations.

Bukele, although, had already been publicly accused of cutting deals 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 response to U.S. court records, Treasury Department sanctions, interviews and information accounts.

Osiris Luna, Bukele’s jail director, and Carlos Marroquin, a presidential ally in control of social welfare packages, reached an settlement with the gang’s ruling council, referred to as the Ranfla, in response to U.S. court documents and interviews with U.S. and Salvadoran regulation enforcement officers. It was a extra expansive deal than these struck by earlier Salvadoran governments, which had provided the gang jailhouse perks reminiscent of prostitutes and big-screen televisions. Marroquin and Luna haven’t responded to requests for remark.

The council, which managed tens of hundreds of MS-13 members throughout the U.S., Mexico and Central America from jail, agreed to lower killings and supply votes for Bukele’s social gathering in alternate for monetary incentives and political affect. In line with courtroom paperwork, the gang chiefs additionally requested the president’s males for an necessary assure: safety from extradition to america.

Murder charges quickly plummeted. At present, 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 staff, which was referred to as Joint Process Drive 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 struggle in opposition to Mexican cartels and Colombian narcoguerillas. Led by a Justice Division prosecutor in New York, the staff mixed brokers from the FBI, Homeland Safety Investigations and different businesses primarily based round america and working in El Salvador and neighboring international locations.

The preliminary focus was to construct circumstances in opposition to gang bosses on racketeering, terrorism and drug prices and extradite them to america. 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 response to interviews and U.S. court records. As ProPublica has previously 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 Growth funds as a part of the cope with MS-13. The results of that request is unclear.

Vulcan additionally cooperated with a staff of Salvadoran prosecutors who had been accumulating their very own proof concerning the gang pact and a community of suspected graft that allegedly included the president’s inside circle.

The potential revelation of a secret deal posed a menace to Bukele as a result of it might undermine his status as a crimefighter and expose him to potential 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 — one among 55 U.S. army advisers to the Salvadoran armed forces within the bloody civil warfare in opposition to leftist rebels within the Nineteen Eighties, in response to former U.S. officers and an online biography of Johnson.

“Considered one of my particular duties was to show the troopers 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 used to be raised in a small city and I used to be honored to work within the army in addition to the CIA,” Johnson mentioned in his assertion to ProPublica.

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

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

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

“I consider that with america, we’ve an alliance,” it learn. “However I consider that with Ambassador Johnson and his spouse, Alina, we can have a private friendship.” Johnson shared the sentiment. In a recent interview, he recalled that he had “developed a really shut private 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 meeting 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 post on X, Johnson declared, “If this isn’t an illustration of the energy of our bilateral relationship, I don’t know what’s.”

“Johnson was very profitable in El Salvador, in creating 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 put up confirmed Johnson and his wife boating with Bukele and his household on an estuary in El Salvador. One other confirmed the ambassador and president eating cracked stone crab claws at a restaurant. They held joint press conferences and infrequently dined collectively, in response to 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 household and circle in a means that made some individuals within the U.S. authorities on the time uncomfortable,” Shannon mentioned.

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

“He was attempting to make use of his relationship with a purpose to advance U.S. coverage and U.S. targets,” mentioned a former embassy worker who served throughout Johnson’s ambassadorship. “He did so in a way more private means.”

Johnson’s method mirrored his expertise cultivating sources as a former intelligence officer, however that didn’t imply he was all the time in management, mentioned a former Trump administration official aware of the matter.

“Johnson wasn’t simply recruiting Bukele. What’s outstanding is that Bukele was recruiting him,” the official mentioned. “They had been recruiting one another. It was a relationship during which Bukele had energy.”

The Dismissal

Because the friendship blossomed, U.S. embassy officers stored Johnson knowledgeable concerning the rising proof of the gang pact and high-level corruption, in response to former U.S. officers. Officers in regulation enforcement and intelligence briefed the ambassador recurrently, the officers mentioned.

In mid-2020, investigators had a significant breakthrough.

Luna, the president’s nationwide director of prisons, made contact with U.S. embassy regulation enforcement officers, in response to former U.S. officers aware of 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 discussed the possibility of giving testimony as a protected witness in alternate for him and his household being dropped at america.

Luna’s reluctance to testify in opposition to Bukele in a U.S. courtroom brought about the deal to fall by way of, however Vulcan investigators now had an insider account implicating the president, officers mentioned.

“It was big,” mentioned a former official aware of the case. “One of many strongest keys was when Osiris tells us, ‘I need you to know this isn’t me negotiating with gangs. That is Bukele’ — and different high aides — ‘and I don’t need to be the autumn man for them.’”

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

That August, a reporter for El Faro, a outstanding investigative information outlet, was chasing an exclusive story to reveal the gang pact. The story would characteristic voluminous proof, together with Salvadoran intelligence experiences, 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 coated corruption in his authorities. His safety forces had put in Pegasus, the Israeli spyware and adware, on the telephones of some reporters, in response to 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 packages for the State Division’s Bureau of Worldwide Narcotics and Regulation Enforcement Affairs. The American was working carefully 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 response to the inspector normal report and interviews. ProPublica has discovered that the contractor relayed info together with handwritten Salvadoran paperwork concerning 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 concerning the contact, in response to the inspector normal’s report.

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

The embassy safety workplace’s “largest concern, although, was [the contractor’s] security as a result of” his “statements to the press upset the El Salvadoran authorities and there was concern that [he] turned a goal of the El Salvadoran authorities,” 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 status in Washington and has continued to work for the State Division on abroad assignments.

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

“It’s extremely, extremely irregular for an envoy to dismiss an embassy staffer on the request of a overseas president,” mentioned a former Hill staffer.

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

“Johnson’s response ought to have been, why are you spying on my workers? That’s the proper reply for any U.S. ambassador,” mentioned a former State Division official aware of embassy operations in El Salvador.

In response to questions concerning the incident, the State Division mentioned the “surveillance of U.S. personnel shouldn’t be tolerated.”

In her overview of the case, Manes would later categorical concern about “the problem of a overseas president requesting the removing of an embassy worker,” in response to the inspector normal report. She mentioned the worker spoke recurrently with the press as a part of his job, “in order that was not a deal-breaker,” in response to the report. She was “not satisfied [he] supplied false statements” throughout the inquiry ordered by Johnson.

Manes questioned whether or not the contractor “had been let go appropriately, or had been unjustifiably eliminated on the request of Bukele.” She mentioned she was unable to reply that query “with the data supplied to her,” in response to the report.

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

“I used to be slightly stunned after I heard that he had had an unauthorized assembly with a member of the press,” Johnson testified, “and I did what I feel any supervisor would do at that time. I referred to as in his division heads and I referred to as in safety and I mentioned, ‘We have to examine this and decide whether or not or not these accusations are true. And if they’re true, I feel we have to decide what sort of info may need been handed.’ And I deferred to his boss, actually, as to what the ultimate disposition ought to 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, educated and assisted by the State Division and different businesses, a former Salvadoran official advised ProPublica.

“No person actually changed him,” the previous regulation enforcement official mentioned. “He was essentially the most lively of the Individuals working with us.”

“El Salvador’s Battles”

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

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

“El Salvador simply takes our cash,” Trump had declared in a post on X.

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

Consequently, Bukele’s standing on the White Home elevated. In the course of the early days of COVID-19, Trump advised Bukele in a cellphone name that the U.S. would donate tons of of ventilators to El Salvador. Trump said on X, “They’ve labored effectively with us on immigration on the Southern Border!”

Johnson appeared to indicate much less curiosity within the Vulcan investigation, former U.S. officers mentioned. “We aren’t right here to struggle El Salvador’s battles,” Johnson would inform embassy workers.

“His normal demeanor was don’t push issues that upset Bukele — he’s 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 conference to announce the indictment. Prosecutors despatched the Bukele authorities an extradition request for Melgar, who was jailed in El Salvador on the time, in response to Salvadoran courtroom data.

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

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

“Ron Johnson didn’t do a lot to extradite Blue,” mentioned a former State Division official with data of the embassy. The Bukele authorities finally denied the request. U.S. regulation enforcement officers suspected that Melgar knew inside particulars concerning 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 response to the previous official, who mentioned embassy workers advised him that the ambassador blocked info in diplomatic cables concerning the pact between Bukele and MS-13.

“It was fairly clear that Ronald Johnson was so shut that he completely did shield 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 you can navigate the place he was near somebody however not cowl for them. His curiosity was the curiosity of america, and the U.S. had an amazing relationship with El Salvador.”

Critics mentioned Johnson’s hands-off method 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 spanking new autos and gear 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 attempting 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 data of what was to occur,” the embassy mentioned in a statement to El Faro after the incident.

Throughout his Senate listening to this yr, 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.

“One thing that few individuals know is that I used to be in touch with him moments earlier than he made the choice, and I used to be telling him to not go. ‘Don’t do that,’” 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 never civil society, not the democratic forces within the nation,” mentioned Noah Bullock, the chief 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.

“An important buddy is leaving,” Bukele declared on the ambassador’s farewell ceremony.

Manes Returns

Just a little 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. A minimum of 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 response to 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 introduced again as a message that we gained’t have enterprise as had been performed,” mentioned a former high-ranking State Division official.

A high State Division official requested her to conduct an “evaluation” of the embassy, together with the contractor’s dismissal, in response to the inspector normal report and interviews. The official advised her he had considerations “concerning the dynamics” on the embassy, the report mentioned. Gonzalez, the previous Nationwide Safety Council official, mentioned senior policymakers thought that embassy workers had been displaying favoritism to Bukele, sending experiences 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 workers, principally regulation enforcement and intelligence officers who weren’t members of the Vulcan activity drive. She accused them of undercutting her management due to their loyalty to Johnson and rapport with Bukele, in response to 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 “had been to not have communications with Bukele authorities officers,” the inspector normal report mentioned. In apply, that meant the workers stopped assembly with senior Salvadoran officers and needed to get approval from Manes and her high deputies to have interaction with others, in response to former senior embassy officers.

A former senior embassy official criticized Manes’ dealing with of the feud. “It bought fairly ugly,” the official mentioned in an interview. “She wished to micromanage every little thing.”

One opponent was particularly nettlesome: the CIA station chief. Early in his tenure as ambassador, Johnson had helped safe his appointment to move 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 house, in response to a former U.S. official.

“Former Ambassador Johnson and the part chief had been shut associates and had been near Bukele and members of Bukele’s authorities,” an embassy worker later advised an investigator, in response to 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 arduous to undermine the notion that Bukele was consolidating and centralizing energy or performing to dismantle Salvadoran establishments,” mentioned the previous State Division official aware of 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 speak,” Gonzalez mentioned. “The suspicion was that Johnson performed a job within the dissidence on the embassy opposing Manes and favoring Bukele.”

Manes determined to demand that the CIA take away the station chief — an uncommon transfer, nevertheless it 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 criticism 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 a listing of questions despatched by ProPublica.

Because the struggle escalated throughout the embassy, Manes engaged in an more and more open conflict with Bukele. She criticized the substitute 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 referred to as for the extraditions of Melgar and different MS-13 senior leaders indicted by the Vulcan activity drive.

“Extradition is one thing essential for america,” she advised the press.

As ProPublica has previously 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.

Prime State Division officers traveled to El Salvador to induce Bukele to reverse course. USAID cut 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 non-public 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 put up.

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

“It’s unattainable to assume that somebody has an curiosity in our relationship after they’re utilizing their paid media machine to assault america day by day,” Manes told 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 nice to spend a while in our Miami house 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: “These had been the instances when ambassadors had been despatched to strengthen relations between nations.”

The alternate was an early salvo in a marketing campaign not simply to rehabilitate Bukele’s status in america 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 more 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 staff of corruption. Neither responded to requests for remark.

In a criminal indictment, Vulcan prosecutors detailed alleged wrongdoing by senior Bukele officers and the gang’s promise to prove help for the president’s social gathering in alternate 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 warfare. 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 people over the subsequent a number of years, locking up lots of them in CECOT, the maximum-security jail.

The crackdown made Bukele enormously widespread 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 giant fan of every little thing that’s been carried out on the market,” he mentioned throughout a Senate listening to in 2022. “I’m hoping that we will nonetheless have a relationship in El Salvador that’s pragmatic. We do not have to clap or have fun all of the stuff individuals do this we don’t essentially assume is nice. However I additionally assume we’ve a nationwide curiosity concern there that must 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 response to 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 hottest authoritarian.” He spoke on the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual gathering of the nation’s most influential conservative politicians. Johnson attended, posting afterwards that Bukele had delivered “an unbelievable speech.”

“Johnson’s credibility and Merlo’s instincts helped Bukele join 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 concerning the Salvadoran chief vanished after his return. Rubio lauded Bukele and mocked the Biden administration’s makes an attempt to strain him.

“Hastily, the crime fee has plummeted. Unexpectedly, the homicide fee has plummeted. Hastily, for the primary time in many years, individuals can exit at night time,” Rubio said in a video posted on-line. “So how has the Biden administration reacted to this? By badmouthing the man, by sanctioning individuals within the authorities, by going after them as a result of they’re being too powerful and too harsh.”

Johnson hailed Rubio’s newfound admiration.

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

In September 2022, Bukele announced 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 fireside chat at a convention at Florida Worldwide College, the place he applauded El Salvador’s progress on safety.

“In some latest discussions that I had with individuals in Washington, D.C., we talked a couple of second time period for President Bukele,” Johnson mentioned. “I mentioned, ‘I feel we’re targeted on the mistaken issues. If he runs for a second time period in a free and honest election and the individuals of El Salvador choose him for a second time period, then isn’t that we do right 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 chance to satisfy with Bukele privately, our group, and I need to thank Ambassador Ron Johnson for that and Damian Merlo for that, for making that occur,” she mentioned.

Epilogue

This April, Trump and Bukele met to have fun a partnership.

“It’s an honor to be right here within the Oval Workplace with the president and chief of the free world,” the Salvadoran president mentioned as they shook arms. “We all know that you’ve against the law downside, a terrorism downside that you just need assistance with, and we’re a small nation, but when we may help, we are going to do it.”

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 a number of the MS-13 gang leaders who had been arrested in Mexico and imprisoned in america. The federal prosecutors who had labored to convey 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.

A couple of 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 may in opposition to drug cartels — have strained the all the time advanced relationship with Mexico.

“I’m keen to satisfy Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and able to work along with her administration on points which might be mutually helpful to each our nations,” Johnson wrote on social media.

Manes’ profession has not fared as effectively. In 2023, the Biden administration nominated her as ambassador to Colombia, one of many high diplomatic posts in Latin America. She appeared a powerful candidate till Rubio and different Republicans on the Senate International 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 purpose.

“Employees on our facet has obtained complaints about Ms. Manes’ management capability, interagency administration model and judgment whereas serving as ambassador in cost 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 coverage that was clearly the steering of the administration,” a former senior State Division official mentioned in an interview. “It has grow to be very troublesome for profession officers when their loyal service is seen within the political enviornment as unacceptable. It’s ironic, given her political opinions.”

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.