The World Briefly

May 31, 2023

Do As I Say …

El Salvador

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A Salvadoran court sentenced a former president and another official to lengthy prison sentences on charges of having links with criminal groups and failure to comply with their duties, Reuters reported.

Former President Mauricio Funes and his Security Minister David Munguía Payes were sentenced to 14 and 18 years, respectively.

Prosecutors alleged that the two defendants were involved in truce negotiations between El Salvador’s gangs aimed at reducing homicides – in exchange for undisclosed benefits to the criminal organizations.

Funes, who governed between 2009 and 2014, currently lives in Nicaragua and was tried in absentia. He became a Nicaraguan citizen in 2019 and the country’s constitution does not allow its citizens to be extradited.

Meanwhile, Munguía criticized the verdict as politically motivated and called the charges against him unfounded.

But allegations of negotiating truces with criminal gangs have also dogged the current president, Nayib Bukele, the Associated Press noted.

The United States Department of the Treasury has accused government officials of providing privileges to gang leaders in exchange for slowing down killings and for giving political support to Bukele’s party.

But that truce broke down in March 2022 when gangs killed 62 people in a single day. The government responded by imposing a state of emergency that has been in effect to this day.

Since then, authorities have arrested more than 68,000 people alleged to be gang members. While the state of emergency remains popular among Salvadorans, human rights groups have criticized allegations of arbitrary arrests, torture, and deaths of prisoners.

This story originally appeared in the May 31, 2023 newsletter, Villains.