HomeNewsBrief97% of El Salvador Wants International Anti-Corruption Body
BRIEF

97% of El Salvador Wants International Anti-Corruption Body

EL SALVADOR / 22 JUL 2016 BY DAVID GAGNE EN

El Salvador citizens are almost unanimously in favor of creating an international commission to investigate organized crime and corruption in the country, a sharp rebuke of the current administration's anti-crime strategy and handling of politically sensitive cases. 

Nearly 97 percent of respondents to a poll (pdf) published by the Central American University (Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas - UCA) said they support the government establishing an international commission to investigate cases of corruption and organized crime. (see chart below)

More than 58 percent of pollsters said they believe there is "a lot" of corruption within the Legislative Assembly; only 16.4 percent said there was little or no corruption. 

The survey, which asked 1,262 adults to evaluate the government's performance during the second year of President Salvador Sánchez Cerén's term in office, also reflected negative opinions about the country's current security strategy. 

An increase in crime was considered to be the "principal failure" of the Sánchez Cerén administration, receiving over 35 percent of the vote. (see chart below) Slightly more than 53 percent of those surveyed said the government's new "extraordinary measures," which have limited communication between incarcerated gang members and the outside world, have had "little" or "no" effect on reducing gang crimes. 

InSight Crime Analysis

The survey indicates there is a deep mistrust among Salvadoran citizens that their government is capable of reducing widespread corruption and crime on its own. This overwhelming response may reignite debate about the establishment of an international anti-corruption body, which have already been created in neighboring Guatemala and Honduras.

The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Comisión Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala - CICIG) has uncovered numerous corruption rings within the government, including several allegedly run by a president and his vice president. The Support Mission Against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (Misión de Apoyo Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad en Honduras – MACCIH) began operations earlier this year. El Salvador, however, has refused to create such a body, instead opting for an anti-impunity program that has a narrower mandate and lacks the investigative powers of the CICIG.

SEE ALSO: El Salvador News and Profile

Authorities in El Salvador may well be afraid of the potential for an international commission to reveal discreet links between government officials and organized crime. El Salvador's former Attorney General, Luis Martínez, -- who was opposed to the creation of a CICIG-like body -- has been suspected of obstructing investigations into Jose Adan Salazar Umaña, alias "Chepe Diablo," the presumed head of the Texis Cartel. Authorities have yet to convict Chepe Diablo -- who has also had business dealings with current Vice President Óscar Ortiz -- despite being named a drug "kingpin" by the United States in 2014. 

On the security front, El Salvador's homicide rate climbed to over 100 per 100,000 people last year, the highest in Latin America, and murders have increased during the first half of 2016. The government has mostly relied on a repressive, hardline approach that targets the street gangs.

The government has attributed a decline in homicides that began in April to the extraordinary measures roll-out, but the gangs say the decrease is due to a non-aggression pact they agreed to at the end of March. 

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ELITES AND CRIME / 12 JUL 2023

Venezuela's Presidents Chávez and Maduro, to secure long-term power, ensured the country's criminal groups would answer to them.

ELITES AND CRIME / 1 DEC 2021

Ground to a halt in Guatemala City’s unrelenting morning traffic, a small team of government investigators began to worry they…

EXTORTION / 31 MAY 2023

A new report has found that organized crime groups are overwhelmingly to blame for violence in Mexico, and the CJNG…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…