President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele
SAN SALVADOR, Aug 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele is planning by early September to fulfill a campaign vow to launch an independent commission to investigate corruption.
“Within our first 100 days we will launch the CICIES,” Bukele wrote on Twitter on Thursday night, referring to the entity to be named the International Commission Against Impunity in El Salvador.
Bukele took office on June 1, ending three decades of a two-party system and vowing to root out entrenched corruption that has implicated even former presidents.
El Salvador’s previous government said its institutions were capable of bringing corrupt politicians to justice.
Vice President Felix Ulloa, appointed to lead the project, has said the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) would be a “strategic ally,” without providing further details.
“The CICIES will be a reality in our country. Those who stole and obstructed the development of El Salvador will be held accountable,” Ulloa wrote on Twitter.
It was not clear whether the commission would need approval from Congress, in which Bukele’s party does not hold a majority.
Former President Antonio Saca, who served from 2004 to 2009, is serving 10 years in prison for money laundering and embezzlement.
Mauricio Funes, president from 2009 to 2014, is accused of money laundering and embezzlement involving $351 million. El Salvador is seeking his extradition from Nicaragua, where Funes has lived since 2016 and claims to have political asylum. — NNN-AGENCIES
