El Salvador Advancing in Fight Against Corruption, Says President

El Salvador is advancing on its fight against government corruption, said the nation's head of state, Salvador Sanchez, after a court decided that former president Francisco Flores will face trial for embezzlement, money laundering and illicit enrichment.

“In the month of December we should feel that we have made progress in fighting corruption,” said President Sanchez Saturday during an official ceremony in the community of Lourdes, about 20 kilometers west of the capital San Salvador.

Earlier this week, A Salvadoran judge ruled that there is sufficient evidence to make Flores face trial for embezzlement and illicit enrichment based on proof that public funds were diverted under his watch during his 1999-2004 presidential term. The judge found that Flores was responsible for causing “serious damage to the country.”

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Money laundering may still be added to the charges if prosecutors deem their is enough evidence.

“We hope that this process (against former President Flores) is respected, and is attached to the law and justice,” added the president.

He insisted that “the most important thing is that the country has justice … as Archbishop (Oscar Arnulfo) Romero said, the law applies to everyone equally,” he said referring to the former Archbishop of San Salvador, known for speaking out against poverty, social injustice, and violence in the 1980s.

Flores is the first president in the history of El Salvador to be tried for corruption.

Earlier this year, El Salvador refused to set up an international commission to fight corruption like the one established in Guatemala that helped bring down the former president, Otto Perez Molina, and vice president, Roxana Baldetti – both currently in jail – for their involvement in a state corruption scandal. The announcement came just after it was revealed that there may be links between the two countries in the massive corruption scandal known as “La Linea.”

The scandal lead to the arrests of several top officials and the forced resignation of Perez Molina.

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