US report identified “corrupt officials” from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras: this could influence financial aid to countries

Several current and former politicians from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have been identified by the United States as “corrupt officials” in a report released Tuesday. Among them are various lawmakers from Central American countries, as well as the chief of staff and a former minister of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, among others.

The list, drawn up by the State Department at the request of the American legislator of Guatemalan origin Norma Torres, includes 17 people. Some have already been sanctioned by the North American country for “significant corruption” or condemned by its judicial system.

“We already know that Central American governments are rife with corruption,” said Torres, the only Central American member of the United States Congress.

“The Guatemalan elites have filled the courts with cronies to serve their interests, and Salvadoran president campaigned against corruption while surrounding himself with actors corruptHe said in a statement.

“I will continue to work with administration (Joe Biden) to deal with other blatant corrupt actors, such as the President of Honduras. I look forward to an expanded list in June, ”he added.

Although a process against him has not yet been initiated, the Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernández, was indicted in a New York court for trafficking cocaine to the United States with his brother Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, sentenced in March to life imprisonment by the American courts.

“In the report I requested, which is now public, the United States government recognizes the corruption that the Central American authorities and their cronies deny and try to hideTorres said.

The legislator also denounced the closure of internationally supported anti-corruption agencies, such as CICIG in Guatemala and MACCIH in Honduras, and the “weakening” of CICIES in El Salvador, and accused senior officials of interfering in independent investigations and blocking oversight bodies.

“Implacable”

Torres, a Democrat from California, stressed the importance of having this list after what she considered “Four years of neglect” under Republican Donald Trump.

“American aid should only go institutions and officials genuinely committed to the rule of law “, He said. “I will be relentless in holding our government to account.”

For this, he promised to use “all available levers”, from financial penalties up to visa restrictions and financial aid suspensions.

The report gives the names of the officials on whom there are “Credible information” on the commission of acts of corruption, including drug trafficking and the receipt or disbursement of political funds related to drug traffickingTorres’s office said.

From El Salvador include the following officials nearly Watch: his chief of staff, Carolina Recinos, former Minister of Security Rogelio Rivas, and lawmaker Guillermo Gallegos, leader of the Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA) party which brought the president to power in 2019.

There are also two prominent members of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), which ruled El Salvador until 2019: the former guerrilla José Luis Merino, known as “Comandante Ramiro”, former legislator and former deputy minister of foreign investments, and Siegfried Reyes, former president of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador.

From Honduras, there are six members of the unicameral National Congress: Juan Carlos Valenzuela Molina, Welsy Milena Vásquez López, Milton Jesús Puerto Oseguera, Gustavo Alberto Pérez, Oscar Najera and Gladys Aurora López.

From Guatemala there are two legislators, Boris Roberto Spain Cáceres, legislator since 2012 and former governor of the department of Chinquimula, and Felipe Alejos Lorenzana, former first secretary of Congress.

It is also Carlos Danilo Preciado Navarijo, Mayor of Ocós, arrested in January in Panama for drug trafficking in the United States.

The other Guatemalans identified are Acisclo Valladares, former Minister of the Economy and fugitive from the American justice system for money laundering from drug trafficking; Gustavo Adolfo Alejos Cambara, former chief of staff to former President Álvaro Colom (2008-2012); Yes Mario Amílcar Estrada Orellana, former legislator and presidential candidate in 2019, sentenced in 2020 in the United States to 15 years in prison for drug trafficking.

Alina Dieste for AFP

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