The President of the Republic, Nayib Bukele, announced tonight a war against corruption, as one of the 3 messages he gave to the people within the framework of the report for his fourth year in government.
From the podium of the Legislative Assembly, the president announced that tonight the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) is seizing all the assets of the former President of the Republic Alfredo Félix Cristiani Burkard, (1989-1994), who fled to Europe more than a year ago, after being summoned by the special commission of the Legislative Assembly to explain probable acts of corruption during his administration.
“Some have noticed that the Attorney General (Rodolfo Delgado) is not with us at this time, and it is because he is seizing all the assets of Alfredo Cristiani,” Bukele said, drawing applause from the pro-government deputies and guests.
Among the assets seized is the Santa Lucía drugstore, which is one of the main businesses of the former president’s family, who ruled under the ARENA flag. Other seized assets are a house in the Santa Elena residential area and another house on Lake Coatepeque. “We will make him return what was stolen,” said President Bukele.
As of today, the assets of the Cristiani family will pass into the hands of the state. «Alfredo Cristiani believed he was one of the owners of the farm. El Salvador will no longer be owned by anyone, those who thought they were the owners are going to pay dearly for it. It does not matter if they stole a long time ago, the crime of corruption no longer prescribes “he stated emphatically.
Alfredo Cristiani was the first president of the Arena party, and has been accused of serious acts of corruption during his government, in addition to being allegedly involved in the death against humanity against 6 Jesuit priests in the context of the Salvadoran civil war in November 1989 .
Within his party, Cristiani is called “the president of peace”, for having carried out the negotiations with the former FMLN guerrilla, putting an end to 12 years of war that left 75,000 dead and thousands missing.
In July 2021 Cristiani appeared before the special commission of the Legislative Assembly to answer whether secret payments or bonuses were made to officials during his government.
In October of the same year, his name was mentioned in the “Pandora Papers”, where it was discovered that he had created at least 16 companies in tax havens upon his departure from power. In addition, the FGR charged him in February 2022 for the UCA massacre where the Atlacatl battalion murdered 6 priests and two employees.