Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07SANSALVADOR1783
2007-09-06 16:37:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy San Salvador
Cable title:  

SAN MIGUEL POLICE CORRUPTION PROBE CASTS WIDER NET

Tags:  PGOV PREL KCRM PHUM ES 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXYZ0001
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSN #1783 2491637
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 061637Z SEP 07
FM AMEMBASSY SAN SALVADOR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7692
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
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)

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