El Salvador Perspectives

José Luis Merino Fourteen members of the US Congress, including Republicans and Democrats, have signed a letter asking the US Treasury Department to open an investigation into the finances of top FMLN party official José Luis Merino: Today, we are writing to request that you use your authority under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act to investigate the US-linked banking activities of Salvadoran citizen, José Luis Merino, known also by his nom de guerre Ramiro Vásquez,  Mr. Merino is a senior member of El Salvador's governing party [whose] reported long-standing associations with transnational organized criminal networks are the subject of US criminal investigations for cocaine trafficking and money laundering, Multiple open source reports indicate that financial structures controlled by Mr. Merino, currently the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, have acquired hundreds of millions of dollars in unexplained wealth while helping the FARC guerrillas in Colombia, ...

On Tuesday this week, law enforcement in El Salvador arrested José Adán Salazar Umaña known as "El Chepe Diablo" the reputed leader of the Texis Cartel in El Salvador. The arrests were reported in InsightCrime by Héctor Silva Ávalos who has been reporting for several years on Chepe Diablo's ability to avoid justice: El Salvador's Attorney General's Office arrested José Adán Salazar Umaña, alias " Chepe Diablo ," the alleged leader of the Texis Cartel , the most important drug trafficking and money laundering organization in the country. The arrest raises new questions about the links between Salazar Umaña and powerful politicians in El Salvador , including current Vice President Óscar Ortiz.  Salazar Umaña was arrested at noon on April 4 during a police operation that involved raids on some 50 properties, including hotels, gas stations and shops that either belong to Chepe Diablo or his associates. According to the authorities, the companies ...

2015 has been a year in which anti-corruption efforts made significant progress in Guatemala.   The battle against corruption was waged by CICIG -- the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala.   A massive scandal involving the customs system in Guatemala has been exposed and prosecuted.  The CICIG obtained indictments of high government officials, the resignation and arrest of the president, and a strengthened civil society. But what about El Salvador? In Transparency International's 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index , El Salvador had a score of 39, on a 100 point scale where 0 is the worst and 100 is the best.  With that score, El Salvador ranked 80th out of 175 countries. The most recent Human Rights Report from the US State Department regarding El Salvador states: The law provides criminal penalties for corruption by officials; however, the government did not implement the law effectively, and officials often engaged in corrupt practices ...

Salvadoran president Mauricio Funes traveled to Washington last week for meetings where he sought to obtain more aid and investment for the Central American country. InfoSur Hoy  reported some of Funes' remarks to international finance bodies: Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes on April 18 told the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) that his country’s gang truce provides an opportune time for development.  “This is an opportunity we can’t miss,” Funes said, referring to the March 2012 truce that has reduced daily homicides from 15 to four.  Funes said gang leaders haven’t accumulated the wealth and power of drug lords, which presents a chance to “offer an economic opportunity to drive that the criminal world away.” Funes estimated there are 60,000 gang members in the Central American nation, but they don’t have structure as do cartels.  El Salvador has emerged as a transshipment point for the trafficking of narcotics north toward Mex...

Yesterday, as El Salvador celebrated its Independence Day, the US government added El Salvador and Belize to its list of major drug producing or drug-transit countries. From the US State Department press release : Under the Foreign Relations Authorization Act (FAA), the President is required each year to notify Congress of those countries he determines to be major illicit drug-producing countries or major drug-transit countries that “significantly affect the United States.” A country’s presence on the list does not necessarily reflect its counternarcotics efforts or its level of cooperation on illegal drug control with the United States. The designation can reflect a combination of geographic, commercial, and economic factors that allow drugs to be produced and/or trafficked through a country.... This year the President has identified 22 countries as major drug-producing or drug-transit countries: Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Burma, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Re...

The online periodical El Faro has published a major exposé on a drug-trafficking organization in El Salvador known as the Texis Cartel. These narco-traffickers control a route which transports drugs from the town of San Fernando on the northern border with Honduras in Chalatenango to the border with Guatemala in Santa Ana Department. This route basically cuts across the northwest corner of El Salvador. The website Insight spotlighted the El Faro reporting this week: With a network of collaborators that allegedly includes policemen, soldiers, judges and federal congressmen, El Faro stated that the Texis Cartel had turned itself into one of the key players for anyone seeking to smuggle drugs through this small Central American nation. Efforts to build a criminal case against the group have gone nowhere. This is despite the government’s longstanding awareness of the gang's existence, according to reports seen by El Faro, and the fact that the group’s founders allegedly inc...