El Salvador Police Put in Custody Recently Named OAS Adviser on Embezzlement Charges

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th June, 2021) El Salvador law enforcement forces have detained Ernesto Muyshondt, former San Salvador mayor and recently appointed adviser to the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) over alleged public funds embezzlement, the national civil police said on Saturday.

Muyshondt, an opposition politician who governed the El Salvadorian capital from 2018-2021, is facing a judicial process over suspicions of affiliating with gangs for electoral fraud in the 2014 presidential election.

"Today we detained the former mayor, [supporter of the Nationalist Republican Alliance] ARENA Ernesto Muyshondt for a new crime after a warrant issued by the Prosecutor General's Office improper appropriations of withholdings to the detriment of the Public Treasury," the police tweeted, also recalling the electoral fraud case in which he is accused of having negotiated with the gangs in exchange for their votes.

Following Muyshondt's appointment to the OAS, the government of El Salvador on Friday withdrew from an anti-corruption deal with the organization, which entails legal reforms to prevent corruption via the international Commission against Impunity in El Salvador, backed by the OAS.

Incumbent San Salvador Mayor Mario Duran maintains Muyshondt committed crimes linked to embezzlement, ideological falsehood, and arbitrariness during his rule. In particular, according to Duran, his predecessor left more than $46 million in debts to the city administration.

For his part, Muyshondt says that lawsuits against him are politically motivated.