By Joshua Goodman - The Associated Press
Several officials of the Salvadoran government of Nayib Bukele, including his chief of staff, have been
included in a list of high-level Central American officials considered corrupt by the State Department
, according to a copy of the report accessed by the news agency. The Associated Press.
The inclusion of five Salvadoran officials on this list is likely to worsen the United States' relationship with Bukele, who faces
intense pressure from the Joe Biden administration over the recent removal of several Supreme Court justices and the attorney general
.
Strengthening democracy is one of the pillars of the US strategy in Central America, especially since the Biden administration considers rampant corruption to be one of the causes of immigration.
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A copy of the report, sent to members of Congress on Monday, was provided to The Associated Press by a Democratic official on the condition that his anonymity be maintained because it had not yet been made public.
The list originally included a secret annex to the report sent to Congress in April in response to a request submitted last year by Democrat Norma Torres, who chairs the group of legislators in charge of relations with Central America.
That broader list contained
the names of 12 Honduran and Guatemalan politicians accused of corruption or with alleged ties to drug trafficking organizations.
The list of five Salvadoran officials believed to have "participated in significant acts of corruption" while in public office was however declassified on May 4, according to the new report.
Unlike the majority of the Hondurans and Guatemalans named,
none of the Salvadorans have been charged or punished in the United States,
and their inclusion on the list does not appear to have immediate legal consequences.
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However, it is likely to further complicate relations between the Biden and Bukele governments, which has been unwilling to back down from its consolidation of power, condemned by US officials and lawmakers from both parties.
His party, New Ideas, swept the February legislative elections, which allowed him to take control of the unicameral Congress and
immediately vote for the removal of the country's top anti-corruption officer and several
high court
magistrates
, who had stopped measures by the president.
Although Bukele remains very popular in his country after decades of corrupt governments that followed the bloody civil war, his detractors in the United States say that
by concentrating power he is weakening already weak institutions.
"El Salvador is a sovereign nation and President Bukele was elected democratically. He makes his own decisions," Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a lengthy statement.
"But the decisions that he and his allies make in the Salvadoran Congress, which affect democratic civil institutions and empower the armed forces,
have consequences for relations between the United States and El Salvador,
" he added.
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The most prominent official on the list is Bukele's chief of staff,
Carolina Recinos, who has worked with the president since he entered politics as mayor
of a small town for the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, created by guerrillas. leftists after the civil war. The report did not give details of the accusations against Recinos.
Also mentioned was Rogelio Rivas, who last month was replaced as Minister of Security and Justice.
The State Department indicated that
Rivas allegedly awarded his construction company several contracts, which were not published in advance and without a competitive bid,
to build police stations and other buildings that fell within its powers, and then inflated the cost of the materials.
Another pointed out is the legislator Guillermo Gallegos, founder of the GANA party that broke the bipartisan system of El Salvador to support Bukele's candidacy for the presidency in 2019.
Also on the list are two former FMLN parliamentarians, Sigfrido Reyes and José Luis Merino, the latter former vice president of Foreign Relations in the government that preceded Bukele's.
Fourteen members of the US Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, wrote letters to the State and Treasury departments in 2017
requesting that Merino be investigated and punished for his ties to regional criminal groups.
El Salvador's presidential office did not respond to a request for comment from Bukele and said Recinos was not available.
Rivas did not respond to a request for comment and Merino could not be reached.
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Bukele, who has accused the United States of arrogance, responded to the report with irony after a copy of the document circulated on social media on Monday.
He said he was surprised that after reviewing his files, "friends" from El Salvador could not find a case of corruption in the conservative ARENA party, a frequent target of their criticism.
"They believe they are all saints," he wrote on Twitter,
"that's why they insist that we return them to power, by saints."
Reyes, a rival of Bukele who has fled to Mexico after being indicted on criminal charges of corruption in El Salvador for actions in his time as a legislator, described the accusations as "baseless and ridiculous."
A State Department spokesman declined to comment on a report, which is not public, although he said that
the fight against corruption is at the center of Biden's strategy in the countries of the Northern Triangle of Central America,
since, he said, it prevents democratic governance undermines security and limits economic growth.