El Salvador Ex-President Sentenced to 14 Years Over Gang Ties

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Facts

  • In El Salvador's crackdown on criminal gangs, the current administration has sentenced former Pres. Mauricio Funes and his former Security Minister Gen. David Munguía Payes to 14 and 18 years behind bars, respectively, for their ties with criminal gangs.1
  • Funes, who governed from 2009 to 2014, was charged with a dozen crimes, including illicit association and failure to perform duties. The trial, which started in April, came after El Salvador last year began allowing trials in absentia since Funes now lives in Nicaragua and is a citizen there.2
  • Prosecutors allege that Funes' negotiations were aimed at getting the country’s powerful street gangs to lower the homicide rate in exchange for benefits to jailed leaders.3
  • Funes has denied having negotiated with the gangs or given their leaders any special treatment. He emphasized that the truce was brokered by the Catholic Church and not El Salvador's government.4
  • He is the second former president of El Salvador to be sentenced to prison. In 2018, Tony Saca was convicted to 10 years in prison over charges relating to over $300M in public funds.5
  • Current Pres. Nayib Bukele has also been accused of conducting similar schemes — including allegedly giving imprisoned gang leaders privileges in exchange for slowing down killings and supporting his party. The truce broke down in March 2022 after 62 people were killed, and Bukele has waged war with them ever since.2

Sources: 1Reuters, 2Associated Press, 3NBC, 4Al Jazeera, and 5ABC News.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by El País. In contrast with previous administrations, Bukele's crackdown on the country's notorious gangs has been highly successful, putting more than 60K dangerous criminals behind bars and dramatically slashing the murder rate that has plagued the nation for decades. Two of his predecessors have rightly been sentenced to long prison terms not only for corruption but for maliciously failing to protect Salvadorians. There should be no tolerance for politicians' criminal conduct or negligence.
  • Narrative B, as provided by Guardian. Bukele has done the same thing that he accuses Funes of doing: negotiating with the gangs. The difference is Bukele's all-out war on criminal organizations has taken a terrible toll on democracy and human rights. Thousands of innocent people, including foreign workers searching for work, have been arrested on very loose grounds. If Bukele is let off the hook for his abuses, then any politician could be free from scrutiny.