HomeNewsBriefDC Pressure Behind Resignation of El Salvador Security Minister?
BRIEF

DC Pressure Behind Resignation of El Salvador Security Minister?

CARSI / 15 NOV 2011 BY ELYSSA PACHICO EN

El Salvador's President Mauricio Funes denies that he bowed to U.S. pressure and forced Public Security Minister Manuel Melgar to resign, while hardliners in his political party say otherwise.

After two years serving as security minister, Melgar submitted his resignation to Funes on November 8. However, the minister had become so ineffectual at his job due to political pressures his decision to step down was a mere "formality," reports El Faro.

According to Jose Luis Merino, secretary of Funes' party the FMLN, Melgar resigned after the U.S. turned down his request for intelligence on drug traffickers based in El Salvador. Other members of FMLN have echoed these claims.

U.S. diplomats refuse to meet with Melgar because he is implicated in the 1985 killings that left four U.S. marines dead in El Salvador. During President Barack Obama's June 2011 trip to El Salvador, no U.S. representative met with Melgar.

A UN report on the incident found no evidence that Melgar was involved in the 1985 attack. The allegations against him stem from testimony by a former guerrilla leader given to U.S. authorities.

Funes denied allegations that U.S. pressure was responsible for Melgar's resignation. He also rejected rumors that he would replace Melgar with a military official.

During Melgar's tenure as security minister, he oversaw the deployment of the military to troubled city neighborhoods, as well as several prisons. He also saw a small decline in El Salvador's murder rate between 2009 and 2010, although the country still ended the year with more than 4,000 homicides.

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

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 4 OCT 2022

Corruption, no supervision, and poor legislation have led to Latin American military weapons ending up in criminal hands.

EL SALVADOR / 19 MAY 2022

A report by El Faro has revealed the initial fractures in the negotiated pact between the El Salvadoran government and…

BRAZIL / 24 MAR 2022

The 2021 ranking of the world's most violent cities predictably features a heavy presence by Latin American and Caribbean population…

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…