El Salvador’s prosecutor’s office ordered the arrest of former president Sánchez Cerén

The prosecutor’s office El Salvador has issued an arrest warrant against former President Salvador Sánchez Cerén (2014-2019) for his alleged involvement in the embezzlement of $ 351 million while he was vice-president of the government of his predecessor, Mauricio Funes, Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado reported on Thursday.

“Later we will ask for the red broadcast so that all Interpol tracking and tracing mechanisms are activated”Delgado added.

According to the prosecutor, Sánchez Cerén reportedly received irregular payments from public funds of $ 530,000 outside of his established salary.

Sánchez Cerén thus becomes the fourth former president of the Salvadoran democratic stage to be required by the prosecution on corruption charges, including Funes.

The prosecution also ordered the arrest of José Guillermo López Juárez, former chairman of the Port Executive Commission (CEPA), and former public works and environment ministers Gerson Martínez and Lina Pohl, respectively.

All are former officials of the government of Funes (2009-2014) and, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, they are outside the country.

According to the attorney general, these people as well as five former officials captured Thursday afternoon “embezzled” with Funes more than 351 million dollars.

“The Public Prosecutor’s Office has closed an investigation against several former officials of the Administration of former President Mauricio Funes, all of these people have contributed to the embezzlement of 351 million euros from the State” Delgado said at a press conference.

According to the prosecution’s investigation, the former officials received sums of money of between $ 200,000 and $ 500,000 “outside of their salary”.

The former officials presented to the press are the former ministers of finance and health, Carlos Cáceres and Violeta Menjívar, respectively.

In addition, the former vice-ministers Hugo Flores and Erlinda Handal, and the former member of the Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation (FMLN) Calixto Mejía (2014-2017) were arrested.

All people are charged with the offenses of money laundering and illicit enrichment.

The attorney general pointed out that the investigation, called “Public Looting”, was derived from the investigation against Funes for the embezzlement of a millionaire.

Funes has lived in Nicaragua since 2016 and in 2017 received the nationality of this Central American country, whose Constitution prohibits the extradition of its citizens.

According to Delgado, the Legislative Assembly approved the Funes executive $ 80.8 million in funds for reserved or secret spending during his five-year tenure, but “in the end, there were $ 351 million. dollars that the Ministry of Finance transferred without the approval of the Assembly “.

“This is not about political persecution, it is about the persecution of thieves who hide behind their political speeches, in the positions they occupied at a given time, their historical past and in the so-called demands of rights of Salvadorans and did not hesitate to betray the State of El Salvador ”, added the prosecutor.

The five former officials captured today are in the cells of the Central Investigation Division (DCI) of the National Civil Police (PNC) in San Salvador.

(With information from EFE)

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