Columnas / Corruption

To Fight Corruption, El Salvador Needs an Anti-Impunity Commission with Teeth


Friday, November 20, 2020
Abraham Ábrego

Francisco Guerrero (left), Secretary for Strengthening Democracy at the Organization of American States (OAS), next to CICIES representative Ronalth Ochaeta and El Salvador’s Attorney General, Raúl Melara, during their first meeting on September 26, 2019. Photo: Carlos Barrera.
Francisco Guerrero (left), Secretary for Strengthening Democracy at the Organization of American States (OAS), next to CICIES representative Ronalth Ochaeta and El Salvador’s Attorney General, Raúl Melara, during their first meeting on September 26, 2019. Photo: Carlos Barrera.

A little more than a year has passed since the founding of the International Commission against Impunity in El Salvador (Comisión Internacional contra la Impunidad en El Salvador, or CICIES), and the government agency—tasked with combating corruption and impunity, until now mostly absent and silent—has finally begun to show its face.

With the exception of a few statements by its Commissioner-Designate Ronalth Ochaeta, a handful of meetings with various actors, and the signing of agreements with certain institutions, since its launch on September 6, 2019, the commission has been characterized by secrecy and a lack of transparency, particularly regarding its role in the investigation of corruption cases.

Then, as the Covid-19 crisis swept the country, Ochaeta began to appear alongside Nayib Bukele at press conferences, during which the president publicly committed to oversee the allocation of emergency relief funds. Otherwise, the commission has remained silent in the face of a rash of corruption scandals surrounding the government’s use of emergency relief funds. When the Prosecutor General of the Republic (Fiscalía General de la República, FGR) initiated proceedings in the case of the El Chaparral hydroelectric dam scandal, he claimed the agency was not working with the CICIES, despite President Bukele’s prior assertion that this was one of the cases of corruption his administration would investigate.

It is only now, in the context of the unexpected raids of various government ministries, carried out as part of an investigation into irregularities in the public purchase of emergency Covid-19 supplies, that Prosecutor General Raúl Melara has acknowledged that the investigations were a result of collaboration between the FGR and CICIES.

In the current scenario, this revelation of collaboration poses the question of whether the CICIES can play a more decisive role in the fight against corruption, despite its limitations, and whether the FGR can play a similarly strong and independent role in the fight against impunity—something that has always been demanded of it.

Having a CICIES closer in character to Guatemala’s now defunct International Commission against Impunity (Comisión Internacional contra la Impunidad en Guatemala, or CICIG) is essential to strengthening and providing direction to the work of agencies like the FGR, which have traditionally been subject to changes in the political landscape. There is little doubt—given that the police are the ones obstructing the investigations, as happened during the recent attempted raids—that an FGR-CICIES collaboration would prove essential, as it did in Guatemala.

President Nayib Bukele promised during his presidential campaign to establish an anti-impunity commission guided by the example of the CICIG. Implemented with the support of the United Nations, the CICIG successfully pursued landmark cases against corruption, which resulted in the dismantling of criminal networks and the prosecution of businessmen, soldiers, members of congress, mayors, and high-level government officials, including the president. When the CICIG’s mandate was terminated by President Jimmy Morales in 2019, it was not because the commission was inefficient or unnecessary, but because its independence and autonomy caused unease among those at the highest levels of power, including the president himself, who had been investigated for illegal campaign financing. 

The OAS-CICIES has so far done little to approximate the CICIG. It was created by executive order and, unlike its Guatemalan equivalent, did not go through the Legislative Assembly, meaning that it does not bind all branches of state, but must instead make separate agreements with each. The commission's mandate is limited and only applies to acts of corruption and certain other crimes, without having the power sufficient to dismantle criminal networks.

Guatemala’s CICIG had a mandate with clear functional and financial autonomy, and a commitment to transparency. In contrast, and despite operating under a Framework Agreement that requires the commission to maintain “independence,” the OAS-CICIES was created using government funds, and is obligated to present 'special reports' at the behest of the government, or to “deliver extraordinary information that the government requires,” which reduces the commission’s autonomy.

Likewise, as stated in the Framework Agreement, the OAS-CICIES only takes action when the government or the FGR requests it to, and is not tasked with establishing mechanisms to receive citizen complaints. In addition, the commission must keep information confidential, limiting public access to its investigations.

For several months, a bill sponsored by various organizations has been under consideration in El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly—a bill that would provide a legal framework for the CICIES and would increase the commission’s scope and autonomy. There is no easy path forward, but today, as so many in the opposition are talking about the importance of fighting corruption, it’s time that we take them at their word and demand they prove it with actions.

Abraham Ábrego is the director of the Programa de Acompañamiento a Víctimas en Fundación Cristosal, a Salvadoran human rights organization that supports victims of displacement and violence.

*Translated by Max Granger

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