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Salvador: Police chief, figure in anti-gang fight, killed in helicopter crash
El Salvador’s police chief, a leading figure in the fight against armed gangs, died in a helicopter crash along with several other officials and a fugitive, the country’s authorities announced Monday. Police chief Mauricio Arriaza was escorting Manuel Coto, a former director of a financial institution accused of major embezzlement and arrested Sunday in Honduras. Both were traveling with other Salvadoran officials on a military helicopter that crashed in the San Eduardo sector, 180 km northeast of the capital San Salvador, the armed forces said on the social network X. “We regret to announce the death of all the people who were traveling” on the plane, they said. Police said the deputy director of investigations, Romulo Pompilio Romero, and Corporal Abel Antonio Arevalo also died in the crash. According to public broadcaster Canal 10, David Cruz, the head of communications for the Justice Ministry, also died in the crash. He had reported rain in a final report before the accident. Rescue teams went to the scene “to provide the necessary assistance,” the civil protection services said on X. After the incident, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele promised to open an investigation. “What happened cannot remain a simple accident, it must be thoroughly investigated,” he said on X, specifying that he would request “international assistance.” Re-elected last February, Mr. Bukele, very popular for his war against criminal gangs but criticized by human rights associations, paid tribute to the police chief, a “fundamental piece to bring peace and security to our people.” – “National hero” – “He was not just any police director, he was the police director of the territorial control plan, of the emergency regime and of the war against gangs,” Mr. Bukele stressed. “We will investigate to the end, but nothing will be able to give us back our national hero,” he added. Manuel Coto, who fled to Honduras where he was arrested before being handed over to the Salvadoran police, is accused of embezzling 35 million dollars as the former director of the Santa Victoria Savings and Credit Cooperative (Cosavi). He was arrested while driving with “a human trafficker to the United States,” Honduran Security Minister Gustavo Sanchez told XA. By nightfall on Sunday, Commissioner Arriaza had arrived at the El Amatillo border, which separates El Salvador from Honduras, where his counterparts had handed over the fugitive to him. President Bukele, who began a second term as head of the country in June after a triumphantly remortgaged election, has based his program and popularity mainly on the fight against the “maras,” under the state of emergency in force since 2022 that allows arrests without a warrant. Nearly 82,000 suspected gang members have been imprisoned in just over two years. Human rights organisations, however, have questioned these methods, expressing concern about the incarceration of innocent people and the conditions of detention.cmm/zm/pz/sk/sf/ial/
