SAN SALVADOR – During the speech to mark the fourth year of governmentSalvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who has been known for the so-called “war against gangs,” announced that his government, in addition to seeking to reorganize El Salvador’s political-administrative division, also wants to start a “war against corruption.”
As a sign of his decision, Bukele announced, in the middle of his speech, that the head of the Attorney General’s Office of El Salvador, Rodolfo Delgado, was not at the ceremony held on June 1 because he was raiding all the properties of the Former President Alfredo Cristiani, who ruled El Salvador between 1989 and 1994.
“We are going to pursue corruption at all levels, starting with one of the politicians who did the most damage to the country, who believed he was one of the owners of the farm, and for that reason he despised our people,” Bukele said, referring to Cristiani.
In the operation announced by Bukele, the Prosecutor’s Office has intervened 156 properties linked to the former president, 15 bank accounts and 42 vehicles. He has also placed “lien” on three companies. The amount seized so far amounts to 10.6 million dollars.
Who is Alfredo Cristiani?
Alfredo Félix Cristiani was president of El Salvador between 1989 and 1994 under the banner of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), a right-wing party that ruled for 20 continuous years, beginning with Cristiani.
The first three years, the ex-president governed the country in the midst of a bloody civil war between the forces of the State and the guerrillas. But it was not until 1992 that the war ended with the signing of the Peace Accords, and since then, Cristiani has been known as “the president of La Paz.”
However, during his tenure they were six Jesuit priests murdered and two collaborators, within the José Simeón Cañas Central American University (UCA), in the department of La Libertad; 33 years later, in March 2022, a court in San Salvador ordered Cristiani’s capture for the crime of alleged omission in the massacre that occurred on November 16, 1989, four months after Cristiani assumed the presidency.
Through his daughter’s social media account, former President Cristiani released a release in which he took a stand against the accusation: “I never knew about the plans they had to commit those murders. It has been questioned that the commander in chief of the Armed Forces had no prior knowledge of the plans (…) The truth is that after long years of military regimes and coups, the subordination to civil power did not happen overnight…”, he said.
The Prosecutor’s Office presumes that the former president left the country a month before the arrest warrant, in February 2022.
new accusations
In September 2021, several legislators, members of a special commission that investigates bonuses, notified the Salvadoran Prosecutor’s Office to open an investigation against the former president, for alleged money laundering, illicit enrichment and bribery.
Twenty-one months after that notice, the Prosecutor’s Office seized the former president’s properties, as well as the assets of three companies, without detailing the crimes for which he accuses Cristiani.
“The investigation showed that former President Cristiani in the five-year presidential term in which he governed appropriated public funds, initially for an amount of 37 million colones, now 4.2 million dollars,” Fabio Figueroa, one of of the prosecutors in charge of the investigation.
The search operation was carried out simultaneously in various departments of the country where the properties are located, including San Salvador, La Libertad, Santa Ana, San Vicente, Usulután and La Paz.
Some of the seized assets will go to the Salvadoran State, including companies, subdivisions, farms and homes, authorities said.
The attorney general, Rodolfo Delgado, said that he found an investigation against Cristiani that had been archived, which pointed to acts of corruption and illicit enrichment.
A journalistic investigation of the salvadoran media The lighthouse revealed that five months before Cristiani left the Presidential House, 106 checks were issued in his name for a total of 5.5 million dollars. Likewise, he revealed that Cristiani was one of the businessmen with companies offshore in the Virgin Islands, British and Panama between 1992 and 2018.
Bukele’s new “war against corruption” has been praised by some and questioned by others. Some consider it necessary to investigate officials from past administrations. Others believe that it is an exercise in political revenge.
Since September 2021, crimes related to corruption do not prescribe, at the request of President Bukele and the approval of the ruling party in the Assembly. So crimes such as illicit enrichment can be prosecuted in the Central American country even if they were committed 30 years or more ago.
In June 2021, Bukele broke the agreement of the International Commission Against Impunity in El Salvador (CICIES) that he had with the OAS.after the international organization made public 12 notices of corruption cases in its government.
Similarly, the Prosecutor’s Office has not disclosed whether the officials and former officials of the Bukele administration named on the US State Department’s Engel List of “corrupt and undemocratic” actors have files open for investigation.
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