Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Friday unveiled a new independent commission to tackle corruption, taking inspiration from a United Nations-backed body that toppled the previous president of neighboring Guatemala.
RELATED:
Guatemalan President-Elect to Create New Anti-Corruption Body
Bukele, who took office in June, has vowed to stamp out corruption that has implicated former presidents and said he had created the International Commission Against Impunity in El Salvador (CICIES) through a presidential decree.
The body's name draws heavily on that of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, or CICIG, whose probes brought down dozens of senior officials and politicians there including Otto Perez, the prior Guatemalan president.
"There's a clamor among the Salvadoran people to combat corruption," said Bukele as he signed an agreement with the Organization of American States (OAS) to create the CICIES.
"The people aren't just calling for corruption to be fought, it wants corruption to be fought with a CICIES."
No los quiero asustar, pero mañana lanzamos la CICIES...#YEstoApenasEmpieza
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) 6 de septiembre de 2019
The United Nations is also considering a request from Bukele to join the OAS in backing the commission.
"Our biggest achievement would be that CICIES isn't around in 10 years in El Salvador because democratic institutions have strengthened so much," said Luis Porto, head of the OAS technical mission. "We didn't come to stay; we came so that we can go."
So disruptive was the CICIG in Guatemala that President Jimmy Morales, whose term ends in January, declared its commissioner persona non grata and refused to renew the commission's mandate after he too ended up in the crosshairs of its investigators.
The CICIG left Guatemala earlier this week.
Bukele said he would also create a special department in the police and the finance ministry to recover money embezzled from taxpayers and to investigate businesses that evade taxes.
Antonio Saca, who was Salvadoran president from 2004 to 2009, is in prison for money laundering and embezzlement.
Mauricio Funes, president from 2009 to 2014, is accused of money laundering and embezzlement involving US$351 million. El Salvador is seeking his extradition from Nicaragua, where Funes has lived since 2016 and claims to have political asylum.