San Salvador (EFE).- A criminal court in El Salvador sentenced former President Mauricio Funes (2009-2014), who currently lives in Nicaragua, to 14 years in prison for crimes committed within the framework of a truce between gangs during his government.
“Former President Mauricio Funes has been sentenced to 14 years in prison and David Munguía Payés, former Minister of Justice and Security, has received a sentence of 18 years in prison,” the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) reported on Twitter.
Funes, tried in absentia after a legal reform that allows it, thus becomes the second president of the Salvadoran democratic stage to receive a prison sentence.
The Prosecutor’s Office explained that Funes received 8 years for the charge of illegal groups and 6 years for breach of duty.
Retired General Munguía Payés received the same sentences and charges and, in addition, 4 years in prison for arbitrary acts.
Gangs, a central issue in El Salvador beyond Funes
Between 2012 and 2014, the Mara Salvatrucha (MS13), Barrio 18 and other minority gangs maintained an armistice to reduce the homicide figures backed by the Funes government.
According to the Public Ministry, this truce stipulated favors for these gangs, such as prison benefits for the imprisoned leaders, public investment in the communities under their control, and a reduced presence of the security forces in the neighborhoods dominated by said structures.
Funes denied, after testifying at the Prosecutor’s Office in 2016, that his government has given perks to imprisoned gang leaders in exchange for a decrease in homicides.
However, in the trial against the so-called truce operators, retired General Munguía Payés testified as a witness and changed the official version by stating that the armistice was a “pacification” policy.
In June 2019, an anti-mafia court sentenced seven operators of the controversial truce between the gangs to between two and three years in prison.