The American embassy, for its part, was displeased by this turn of events. Officials at the State Department, which provided funding for Salvadoran prisons and law enforcement operations, considered the negotiations a capitulation and a security breach. Seven months later, the Treasury Department designated MS-13 a “transnational criminal organization” and began applying sanctions. It was the first time a street gang had received such a label. Anyone caught doing business with MS-13—including, in some cases, those working on community initiatives to coax gangsters away from violence—faced jail
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