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Weekly Report - 27 July 2017 (WR-17-29)

EL SALVADOR: A truce for the corrupt

Ernesto Muyshondt was elected unopposed on 23 July to represent the right-wing opposition Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (Arena) in the mayoral election in San Salvador on 4 March 2018. His election was eye-catching because it came days after the legislative assembly approved a series of contentious reforms to the asset forfeiture law, known as the Ley de Extinción de Dominio, which were widely condemned as a setback for combating corruption and impunity, including by the attorney general, Douglas Meléndez, who tweeted on 19 July that “if there was a truce for the [mara] gangs, this is a truce for the corrupt”. Muyshondt was a fierce critic of the previous government’s truce with the mara gangs, although it later emerged that he secretly negotiated with mara leaders in February 2014 during the last presidential election campaign when he was Arena’s campaign chief.

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