priest Antonio Rodríguez claimed that one of his colleagues, Édgar Giovanni Morales, was assassinated by members of Barrio 18. Rodríguez claimed that Morales was assassinated in retaliation for Rodríguez's opposition to the gang truce, and claimed that the truce benefited the gangs while they continued to participate in criminal activities. He later changed his position and supported the truce. According to Mijango, who met Rodríguez shortly after he made his claim, Rodríguez changed his view in part due to fear after Morales' death. Despite Colindres' role in forming the truce, three of the Church's top leaders informed the government that they did not want anything to do with the truce. The country's Catholic Conference of Bishops issued a statement on 12 May 2013 questioning the effectiveness of the truce, seeking to distance themselves from Colindres, stating that "the truce has not produced any benefits for the honorable and hard-working population". Additionally, many lower ranking Church officials also opposed the truce. According to Colindres himself, he participated in the truce's negotiation without consulting the conference and that he was motivated by the Church's humanitarian imperative. Munguía and Mijango believed that Colindres' participation would help legitimize the truce. In April 2012, José Luis Escobar Alas, the archbishop of San Salvador, praised Colindres' efforts in forming the truce and called upon Salvadorans to take advantage of the situation to "surpass the intolerable violence", but as the truce was collapsing in March 2014, he stated that the truce was "well intentioned, but did not work". Politicians Ernesto Muyshondt, a spokesman for the Nationalist Republican Alliance, stated following the announcement of the truce that he might call for an investigation hearing against Munguía, stating that making deals with the gangs would be "a nefarious precedent [...] the government would be offering itself to extortionists". On 8 May 2013, Attorney General Luis Martínez criticized the truce as "hypocritical". He stated that "this false truce does not really exist, because every day it is demonstrated that there continue to be victims in our country, of working people, of fighting people, not of these lazy gang members who only dedicate themselves to stealing, extorting, and murder". In June 2013, he accused Munguía of suspending fourteen anti-gang operations in San Salvador and leaking information to gang members in October 2012 to help them avoid arrest. He has also referred to the peace zones as "pandillalandia" (literally "gang land"). In