HomeNewsBriefEl Salvador Mayor Sentenced to 13 Years For Drug Trafficking
BRIEF

El Salvador Mayor Sentenced to 13 Years For Drug Trafficking

EL SALVADOR / 7 JAN 2016 BY MIMI YAGOUB EN

The prosecution of an El Salvador mayor for drug trafficking is a glaring example of the lack of rigor in appointing politicians in Central America, drawing attention to a corrupt system crying out for reform.

Cristóbal Benítez Canales, the mayor of San Francisco Gotera, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for drug trafficking, reported El Diario de Hoy.

Benítez was captured in October 2010 during the alleged transaction of two kilograms of cocaine, reported La Prensa Gráfica. At the time of the arrest, Benítez was believed to be part of a drug trafficking network distributing cocaine and crack in Eastern El Salvador and in the department of Cabañas.

However, in 2011 judge Enrique Beltrán absolved Benítez of the charges on technicalities, reported La Prensa Gráfica. Beltrán was subsequently suspended and prosecuted on bribery charges in 2014.

In 2013, a court overturned Beltrán's ruling and reopened the case.

SEE ALSO:  El Salvador News and Profiles

Despite the open case against him, in 2015 Benítez was elected mayor of San Francisco de Gotera, in the Morazán department, as a candidate for the Grand Alliance for National Unity party (Gran Alianza por la Unidad Nacional - GANA).

Benítez is also the former vice president of the Vista Hermosa soccer club, of the San Francisco de Gotera municipality. He also carried out the construction of the team's Correcaminos stadium through his business Constructora Benítez, at a cost of $510,000.

The mayor's sentencing comes shortly after the election of El Salvador's new Attorney General, Douglas Meléndez. During his long career within the Attorney General's Office, Meléndez has participated in processes including official corruption, organized crime, and he also founded the Anti-Corruption and Complex Crimes Unit (Unidad Anticorrupción y Delitos Complejos), reported El Diario de Hoy.

InSight Crime Analysis

Politician, soccer boss, businessman, and convicted criminal: Benítez's track record is not dissimilar from that of numerous Central American elites who have been found guilty of involvement in organized crime. Participation in the soccer industry is in fact believed to be a way for corrupt politicians to gain public support, which in turn shields them from scrutiny. In the recent detainment of six soccer elites in neighboring Honduras, for example, those arrested included current and former ministers, mayors, and businessmen.

SEE ALSO:  Coverage of Elites and Organized Crime

The long-delayed prosecution of Benítez additionally draws attention to the ease with which suspected criminals can be elected into public office. According to La Prensa Gráfica, candidates for municipal posts in El Salvador do not undergo background checks, even though people with judicial cases against them are not technically allowed to run for office. The only requirement is that candidates declare that they have no legal issues, which local Departmental Electoral Boards (Juntas Electorales Departamentales - JED) must accept in good faith.

It remains to be seen whether the appointment of Meléndez, given his background in fighting corruption, will lead to a reduction in official impunity in El Salvador, mirroring recent developments in the other Northern Triangle countries. In Honduras, authorities' increased inclination to take down corrupt elites is considered to be behind its swathe of soccer arrests, while the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Comisión Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala - CICIG) is largely responsible for taking down corrupt members of the uppermost echelons of Guatemalan politics.

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

BARRIO 18 / 9 FEB 2023

In El Salvador, crackdowns have led to rapid improvements in security. But there is real doubt about whether gangs are…

COCAINE / 14 DEC 2021

An explosive new report suggests that the high-profile assassination of Jovenel Moïse may have been related to a crackdown on…

CRIMINAL MIGRATION / 23 MAR 2023

Nelson Alexander Flores Pacheco, alias "Mula", was the liaison between the Mexican Mafia and the MS13 in Tijuana, Mexico.

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…