Leaked prison yard video of gangster porno party further undermines gang truce

A leaked cellphone video of incarcerated gangsters cheering on three naked women during a prison yard porno party in one of El Salvador’s maximum-security penitentiaries has sent shockwaves across social media and led to an embarrassing government probe into what—in the name of goodness—is happening behind the country’s prison walls.

The video, apparently shot by an inmate back in September 2012, during the heyday of the former gang truce, shows three women strip and engage in sexually explicit acts in front of a crowd of dozens—if not hundreds—of tattooed gangbangers in the Izalco prison in Sonsonate. The party was allegedly part of the prisoners’ annual celebration of Virgin of Mercy, the patron saint of inmates.

The porno party, which included lap dances and other forms of audience participation, is thought to have been a perquisite of the gang truce, a controversial 15-month negotiated ceasefire that helped quiet the guns for period back in 2012-2013.

Here’s a censored clip of the video. The original is nearly 5 minutes long.

Though the video is several years old, it’s leak to the media this week has been cause for mild scandal in a country with more than it’s fair share of scandals. Authorities this week launched an official investigation, as Salvadorans sounded off on social media.

You’ve gotta be kidding me. This is how we treat criminals? And we’re the ones paying for the party! What side are they on? Corrupt!

The implication is that the porno party had the imprimatur of prison officials—or possibly even the central government—as a way to keep prisoners’ spirits up during the negotiations of the gang truce, which came unhinged by July 2013. But those involved with the former gang talks suspect that the video’s release is part of a dirty politics campaign by rightwing elements who are trying to further discredit the former truce and justify a continued military crackdown on gangs.

“This is an attempt to attack the gang truce for the purpose of undermining any idea of dialogue. This type of thing (prison porno party) was NEVER part of the gang truce,” former FMLN guerrilla and gang mediator Paolo Luers told me this week by email. “This was not part of the deal that mediators negotiated with the government to create a more favorable climate for the truce.”

The gang truce between the Barrio 18 and MS-13 was mostly negotiated among the ranfla, or top gang leadership, who are all incarcerated in maximum security prisons but still run the streets from behind bars.

Luers says the only things mediators ever negotiated with incarcerated gangsters in exchange for the truce was  increased access to family visits, access to books and newspapers, better health care, and more conjugal visits, “but not with prostitutes.”

“We never coordinated parties like the one in this video,” Luers insists. “On the contrary, we tried to reduce the levels of corruption that have always existed in prison, before, during, and after the gang truce.”

Luers says he suspects the the release of the video could also be part of a political play to removal of the country’s defense minister and other high members of the government’s security apparatus.

Since the gang truce was left for dead, violence in El Salvador has spiked to new horrifying levels, making this Central American nation one of the most dangerous countries in the hemisphere.