{"id":44160,"date":"2024-09-25T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/?p=44160"},"modified":"2024-09-25T06:49:44","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T09:49:44","slug":"el-salvador-a-timely-accident-for-three-troublesome-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/el-salvador-a-timely-accident-for-three-troublesome-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"El Salvador: A timely \u201caccident\u201d for three troublesome \u201cfriends\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

They say no one dies before their time… but in Nayib Bukele’s El Salvador, some deaths seem so timely that they challenge the saying, making it seem like fate can be twisted, and endings rushed.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On September 9, three key figures closely tied to murky actions within Bukele’s government <\/a>were aboard a helicopter that crashed in Pasaquina, La Uni\u00f3n, killing them and six others. The helicopter had just received Manuel Coto Barrientos, the former general manager of the Santa Victoria Savings and Credit Cooperative (COSAVI), who was implicated in the embezzlement of up to $35 million. Coto had been handed over by Honduran authorities after being captured while attempting to cross into Nicaragua following an Interpol red alert.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other two “timely” deaths for Bukele’s administration were that of Civil National Police Director Mauricio Arriaza Chicas and Deputy Director of Police Intelligence, Douglas Omar Garc\u00eda Funes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The financier who knew too much<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manuel Alberto Coto Barrientos, the former president of COSAVI, was a financial wizard\u2014so much so that he managed to make $35 million vanish from the institution’s accounts. COSAVI has been under investigation since May for defrauding the public economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although his international arrest warrant was officially issued due to the alleged fraud, it\u2019s clear that this financial \u201cgenius\u201d knew too much about the shady dealings of legislators and mayors within the Nuevas Ideas party\u2014Bukele\u2019s political vehicle for securing the presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a country like El Salvador, currently run by a family and a few unscrupulous cronies, having too much information can be dangerous. And when scandals break, the danger becomes even greater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A police chief with a dark history<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mauricio Arriaza Chicas, the director of the Civil National Police, was for years the face of Bukele’s repression. He was legally backed by the state of emergency, which justified the atrocities committed against civilians\u2014whether or not they were involved in criminal activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arriaza Chicas was one of the main targets of accusations from farmers and impoverished citizens whose innocence couldn\u2019t be proven due to a corrupt judicial and police system. Among other accusations, he was implicated in the murder of a female police officer and faced a long list of human rights violations, according to international organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With his death<\/a>, President Bukele can now breathe easier, free to scapegoat the deceased police chief as the sole, or at least the main, culprit behind indiscriminate arrests, police corruption, torture, and the violation of detainees’ rights\u2014whether or not they were guilty of any crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A double-dealing officer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Douglas Omar Garc\u00eda Funes, the deputy director of Police Intelligence, was placed in his position by Bukele, he had been under DEA surveillance since the administration of El\u00edas Antonio Saca Gonz\u00e1lez (2004-2009) for suspected involvement in protecting drug cartels. He allegedly achieved this by using corrupt members of the Police Reaction Unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this case, Bukele\u2019s government has rid itself of a potential scapegoat in case international agencies decided to delve deeper into the state’s ties to the drug trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Bukele seems to have had exceptional luck, as in a single incident, three shadows that could have caused future problems\u2014potentially implicating him and much of his inner circle in drug trafficking and other dubious dealings\u2014vanished. A timely accident that clears the way of three embarrassing associates doesn\u2019t happen every day, but Bukele seems to have plenty of good fortune when it comes to maintaining impunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Bukele appears to have been fortunate, as three potential threats\u2014linking him and his inner circle to drug trafficking and other questionable activities\u2014disappeared in a single incident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":168,"featured_media":44156,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16885,16886],"tags":[15635],"gps":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-44160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bukele-en","8":"category-el-salvador-es-en","9":"tag-debates"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44160"},{"taxonomy":"gps","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gps?post=44160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}