El Salvador: AG Orders Arrest of Former FMLN Pres Sanchez Ceren

El Salvador´s Attorney General Office ordered on Friday the arrest of leftist former president Salvador Sanchez Ceren (2014-2019) alongside nine former cabinet officials, as the government hunts leaders of Farabundo Marti Front for the National Liberation (FMLN).

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FMLN Denounces Political Persecution in El Salvador

Ceren is not currently residing in El Salvador and he left the country in 2021. Hence, Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado informed that the authorities "have issued arrest orders and later we will request a red alert for Interpol to activate its search mechanisms against Salvador Sanchez Ceren."

The FMLN is the largest opposition force to the government of president Nayib Bukele. Ceren and other former ministers were accused of money laundering and corruption. This, as five top former officials during the administration of former president Mauricio Funes were detained.

"All the people who were arrested this afternoon contributed to the embezzlement of more than 300 million dollars that they stole from the money of Salvadorans, during the administration of former President Mauricio Funes," the Attorney General said.

On Thursday the FLMN said that "everything we are seeing now has at its core the purpose of silencing critical voices, threatening all kinds of opposition, blackmailing difference and above all, what we never thought would return to El Salvador, political persecution."

Moreover, the FLMN Secretary-General Oscar Ortiz denounced that "what has begun to take hold in our country is a systematic violation of the civil, political and human rights of our families and our communities."