The Specialized Sentencing Court C of San Salvador installed on Wednesday the trial against former President Mauricio Funes (FMLN 2009-2014) for allegedly concluding a truce with the gangs to reduce the country’s homicide rate artificially, for the political benefit of his government and party.
Funes, who lives in Nicaragua under the protection of President Daniel Ortega, who granted him Nicaraguan nationality in 2019 to avoid his extradition, is not present at the trial in which his former Security Minister, General David Munguía Payés, is also being prosecuted.
A criminal reform approved on September 21, 2022 allows trials to be held with defendants absent, so that the judicial process can continue in absentia with a lawyer imposed by the accusing party.
Funes faces charges for the crimes of illegal groups and breach of duty and, if found guilty, could receive a sentence of up to 11 years in prison, while General David Munguía Payes, former Minister of Justice and Security, faces the same charges. charges, is added the crime of arbitrary acts and could receive a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
This is not the first case of alleged negotiations between Salvadoran government officials and gangs. Journalistic investigations and United States authorities have accused the government of President Nayib Bukele of also negotiating with the gangs.
An indictment by the United States Attorney’s Office against Mara Salvatrucha gang members, filed in federal court in New York, points to two high-ranking government officials of President Bukele for having negotiated with the gang a reduction in homicides in exchange for alleged benefits between the years 2019 and 2021.
Neither in El Salvador nor in the United States is there a formal accusation that is specifically directed against officials of the Bukele government for this issue.
In the trial against Funes, the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) maintains that there is intervention in telecommunications where “categorically there is talk of the events that took place in the truce with the gangs and that there was indeed an agreement between the members of the gangs and the then Minister of Security, David Munguía Payés, with the approval of the President of the Republic (Mauricio Funes)”.
According to the accusations, the leaders were taken out of the maximum security prison and sent to jails where they received visits from other gang members on the loose to plan their criminal activities. In addition, the prison authorities allowed them to bring in all kinds of electrical appliances, sound equipment, televisions, and also to organize parties with women who came and went without any problem.
FGR loses a witness against the defendants
The Public Ministry (FGR) reported on Wednesday, April 26, during the phase of incidents in the trial for the Truce case between gangs in which they accuse former president Mauricio Funes and former minister David Munguía Payés, who They have not been able to locate a gang member from the Barrio 18 Revolucionarios who would serve as a witness in this process.
This is the ex-ranflero from Barrio 18, Carlos Eduardo Burgos Nuilawho has been a witness in other gang-related legal proceedings.
Burgos Nuila, who lived in Zone 6 of Guatemala and who in February 2023 stated that he was willing to collaborate by giving his testimony in the trial against the former officials, would be one of the high-ranking gang members who were released and taken out of the country as part of an alleged negotiation between the current government of Nayib Bukele and the gangs.