Former President of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes, was sentenced to 14 years in absentia. Associated press.
Funes currently resides in Nicaragua, where he became a citizen in 2019. Last year, El Salvador made changes to the law allowing trials in absentia.
The prosecution accused Funes of having illegal links with criminal gangs. The former president has denied negotiating with gangs or granting any privileges to their leaders.
The country’s current president, Nayib Bukele, is also accused of having the same kind of negotiations with gangs.
In 2015, the Supreme Court of El Salvador ruled that the gangs were terrorist organizations.
In El Salvador, as previously reported opened Mega prison for 40,000 people. According to officials, this is part of plans to combat criminal gangs in the country.
More than 800 soldiers and police officers will be on duty in the prison, who will have to maintain order. In addition, the new penitentiary should solve the problem of overcrowding in other prisons and relax the system in general.