The former Minister of Defense, General José Atilio Benítez and his wife Emma Isaura Muñoz de Benítez, were found guilty of illicit enrichment and disqualified from holding public office for 10 years, in a process in which they did not request a prison sentence but restitution of the money to the state coffers.
A civil court in the south of San Salvador ordered the former minister to return nearly $122,000 for illegally increasing his assets between June 2009 and November 2011, according to the Prosecutor’s Office. The events occurred when Benítez served as Vice Minister of National Defense in the government of Mauricio Funes.
According to the Supreme Court of Justice, the former senior official made 40 bank deposits in checking accounts in his name for an amount of $133,344, while his wife found four irregularities totaling $56,613.35. In the case of women, they correspond to deposits in savings accounts, credit card payments and payments to mortgage loans.
Although initially the Public Ministry accused them and sought compensation for illicit enrichment in the amount of $169,957.35, during the trial and after a financial examination, that figure was reduced.
In such a way that they have been ordered to return to the State of El Salvador 88,044 dollars to the former vice minister and 33,613.25 dollars to his wife, “making a total of 121,657.35,” explained one of the prosecutors in the case.
The retired soldier faces two other criminal cases. He has a trial in a San Salvador court for the crimes of arbitrary acts, illegal trade in firearms, fraud and embezzlement.
In 2019, Benítez was charged in a San Salvador criminal chamber for the illegal registration of 29 firearms. The Prosecutor’s Office assured that the military man used his position as former Minister of Defense to traffic firearms from the Armed Forces warehouses and give orders to his subordinates to fraudulently register the weapons, through a decree that is no longer enforced. was in force. Then they were sold to individuals.
In August 2020, he was also accused of an alleged act of corruption in the exchange contract for obsolete weapons and in poor condition between Defense and the Centrum company for an amount of two million dollars. In both cases, the former official is being prosecuted in freedom.