SAN MIGUEL POLICE CORRUPTION PROBE CASTS WIDER NET

C O N F I D E N T I A L SAN SALVADOR 001783 SIPDIS SIPDIS WHA/CEN FOR SCRAIG E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/05/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL KCRM PHUM ES SUBJECT: SAN MIGUEL POLICE CORRUPTION PROBE CASTS WIDER NET REF: SAN SALVADOR 1525 Classified By: Political Counselor Philip Laidlaw, Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Summary: The ongoing investigation into police corruption in San Miguel has so far resulted in the arrest of a total of eight National Civilian Police (PNC) officers, as well as indictments ranging from murder to obstruction of justice to dereliction of duty. While the cases point to serious problems within the San Miguel PNC delegation, they also illustrate GOES determination to bring rogue cops to justice and to protect the institutional integrity of the PNC. End summary. ¶2. (U) On August 30, the Salvadoran Attorney General's office brought charges against four PNC officers in the organized crime court in San Miguel. The four officers, Roberto Carlos Chavez, Edelberto Paiz Morales, Andy Cruz Vasquez and Henry Hernandez Salmeron, along with Samuel Eliseo Hernandez, a local businessman from a nearby town, were indicted for a triple homicide that took place in a bar in Jocoro in late July. The four officers and their civilian accomplice are charged with gunnig down three young men who apparently had streetgang connections. According to local press reports after the four PNC officers and the civilian spnt an evening drinking in a Jocoro bar, they setled their bill and departed the premises. Shorty afterwards, the officers reportedly returned to the bar wearing ski masks and opened fire on the three alleged gang members. ¶3. (U) The indictments handed down in the Jocoro killings stem from the ongoing investigation into police corruption and murder for hire in San Miguel initially reported in reftel. At the outset of that investigation, Nelson Arriaza, former Chief of Criminal Investigations for the PNC in San Miguel, along with two other PNC officers, was indicted for his role in a July 28 murder in La Union department. (Note: Arriaza is also believed to have played a minor role in the Jocoro killings. End note). As the probe of Arriaza and his colleagues widened, four other PNC officers from La Union were arrested and charged with negligence, evidence tampering, dereliction of duty, and obstruction of the initial La Union murder investigation. They are alleged to have withheld a key ballistics test and concealed other crime-scene evidence that implicated Arriaza in the murder. 4.(C) Comment: The ongoing San Miguel PNC investigation and resulting indictments present a bad news good news scenario. On the negative side of the ledger, the cases are unambiguous evidence of serious problems within the San Miguel PNC contingent. Moreover, the Jocoro killings, unlike the initial La Union murder, exhibit all of the hallmarks of social cleansing. As such, what is likely an instance of PNC officers conducting extrajudicial killings of gang members undermines public (and judicial) confidence in the PNC. On a wider level, the San Miguel PNC scandal also threatens to further polarize the ongoing ARENA-FMLN debate over striking the proper balance between public security and protecting human and civil rights. ¶5. (C) On the plus side, the GOES reaction indicates that the PNC and the Ministry of Public Security and Justice are serious about dealing with police corruption problems head on. Rather than closing ranks and going into a defensive mode, the PNC gives every indication that it is serious about removing rogue cops from the ranks and seeing that they are prosecuted for their crimes. Moreover, the San Miguel investigations also appear to be stimulating reform of the police disciplinary regime. The high public profile of these cases has spurred the Ministry of Public Security and Justice into proposing legislation that would strengthen the mechanisms for oversight and discipline of PNC officers. In a related development, Minister of Public Security and Justice Rene Figueroa has publicly asserted the Saca administration's strong commitment to taking the disciplinary measures necessary to protect the institutional integrity of the PNC. End Comment. Butler