El Salvador holds ex-minister over gang deal to cut killings
THE former defence minister of El Salavdor was arrested and a warrant issued for the country’s former president over their alleged historic involvement in a pact with crime gangs.
According to prosecutors, David Munguia and Mauricio Funes, the former Salvadoran president, organised a pact between two rival gangs, Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18, in order to reduce the number of homicides between 2012 and 2014, in exchange for providing undisclosed benefits to the criminal organisations.
National police arrested Mr Munguia at his home Thursday.
Investigators say they determined it was Mr Funes and Mr Munguia who conceived of and implemented the pact.
Mr Funes, who governed from 200914 before seeking political asylum in Nicaragua in 2016, is also facing prosecution in five separate court cases.
The former president claimed in a post on Twitter that he had not authorised the truce between the gangs or given them money.
“I never met with gangsters and nor did I order any official to do so,” Mr Funes wrote. “I never ordered nor authorised prison privileges for any gang member.”
Manuel Chacon, a lawyer for Mr Munguia, said there was not enough proof to warrant his client’s arrest.
Mr Chacon said he will ask a judge to allow his client to not be held in jail while awaiting trial, because he is more than 70 years old and has sufficient familial and work ties to keep him from being a flight risk.
When Mr Munguia was previously called to testify in another case related to the pact, he said that it was public policy born in Mr Funes’ security cabinet.
“My role was to facilitate the work of the mediators and receive reports from the mediators and members of the (Organization of American States) and keep the President of Republic informed of advances in the process,” Mr Munguia said.
During the pact, daily homicides dropped from about 14 to five. But the agreement dissolved in September 2013 after the Supreme Court removed Mr Munguia from his position and new authorities withdrew the privileges that imprisoned gang leaders had received. Homicides then rose again.