Carlos Mojica - widely known within criminal circles as "El Viejo Lin" - has died in El Salvador from complications related to his liver, the government announced on May 21. Mojica was a founding member and long-term leader of the Barrio 18 gang and had been incarcerated in a maximum-security prison since 2003.
Authorities say Mojica was deported to El Salvador in the 1990s after time in the United States, where he was involved with emerging gang cells that came to identify as Barrio 18. He was convicted of ordering dozens of murders and faced additional accusations of other crimes. Despite his incarceration, officials maintain he continued to exercise leadership and to order criminal acts from behind bars.
State communications note that Mojica played a central role in negotiating a 2012 truce between Barrio 18 and its rival, MS-13, during the presidency of the late Mauricio Funes. That agreement coincided with a substantial reduction in the country’s homicide rate, which dropped from 14 homicides per day to an average of five per day, according to the account provided.
In 2024, Mojica received diagnoses of kidney and liver problems along with a suspected brain tumor. His death is attributed to liver complications. The government statement places his detention and legal history in the wider context of efforts to address gang violence in El Salvador.
The article also notes that Barrio 18 had previously fractured into two main factions - the Sureños and the Revolucionarios. Since 2019, under President Nayib Bukele, a series of law enforcement crackdowns and declarations of a state of emergency have been credited by the administration with significantly weakening the gang's influence.
Context limitations: The government announcement supplies these key facts, but it does not provide further detail on immediate operational consequences for the gang or on any succession arrangements following Mojica's death.