Washington, .- Salvadoran presidents Elías Antonio Saca and Mauricio Funes or former Guatemalan Vice President Roxana Baldetti head a list of corrupt in Central America prepared by the US Department of State. that a congresswoman criticized this Thursday for including only imputed and condemned.
In addition to Saca, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison; Funes, escaped to Nicaragua; and Baldetti, sentenced to 15 years; The list includes several high-ranking Honduran, Salvadoran and Guatemalan ex-officials linked to corruption or drug trafficking.
The State Department prepared this list in response to a congressional requirement included in the Pentagon’s budget bill for 2019.
The US Congressman Norma Torres, born in Guatemala, promoted this requirement and after receiving yesterday the list criticized that only obvious and known names have been included and warned that she is “considering all the options” that she has as a representative to force the Government to give more information.
“It’s incredible that the State Department has been delayed for 53 days in delivering this report and this is what they gave us, if Congress wanted a list of officials who were sentenced or sanctioned, we would have searched on Google,” Torres said. He called the “farce” list.
“We know,” he added, “that the US government is aware of many, but many corrupt officials in Central America who were not included in the report.”
That is why Torres accused the Donald Trump government of “covering up” and being “an accomplice to corruption in Central America,” citing the expulsion of Guatemala’s International Commission Against Corruption (CICIG) or the alleged ties to drug trafficking in the country. brother of the president of Honduras.
“Due to the complicity of this Government, Honduras and Guatemala are on the way to becoming narco-states,” he concluded.
In response to criticism, a spokesman for the State Department told Efe that the report delivered to Congress “was not intended to identify all individuals suspected of corruption in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.”
He argued that the list “strictly complies” with the requirement that it should include “names of senior government officials” that are known to have committed or facilitated “acts of corruption or narcotics trafficking.” (EFEUSA)
