SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Former El Salvador President Mauricio Funes, who spent the final years of his life in Nicaragua to avoid various criminal convictions, died delayed Tuesday. (*65*) was 65.
Nicaragua’s Health Ministry said in a statement that Funes died of a solemn chronic illness.
Funes ruled El Salvador from 2009 to 2014. (*65*) spent the last nine years under the protection of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, whose government granted him citizenship, allowing him to avoid extradition.
The former president faces prison sentences of more than 26 years in El Salvador for corruption and dealings with the country’s powerful street gangs, but he has never set foot in prison.
The journalist-turned-politician came to power with the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, the left-wing party that emerged from El Salvador’s civil war and was a powerful national political force for three decades, losing no seats in the country after last year’s election Congress had more.
On Wednesday, his party said in a statement that “As an investigative journalist and incisive opinion maker, Mauricio Funes enjoyed wide acceptance and support among the Salvadoran people and the international community during his time as President of the Republic.”
Current Labor Secretary Rolando Castro said of X that Funes’ “skills and contributions to the country as a journalist are undeniable, as are his failures in public office.”
Funes was born on October 18, 1959 in San Salvador. (*65*) worked as a teacher in Catholic schools, but later made a name for himself as a war reporter and hosted a hugely popular interview show that tackled controversial topics. (*65*) interviewed several heads of state, worked at two television networks and was a correspondent for CNN from 1991 to 2007, winning several awards.
Then the FMLN called and offered to make him their candidate, and he won the 2009 elections, defeating Rodrigo Ávila of the conservative National Republican Alliance, better known as Arena, which had ruled the country since 1989.
Funes was a fresh face, not someone directly involved in the civil war, as the party sought to reinvent itself with a less warlike image.
At the time, Cardinal Gregorio Rosa praised Chávez Funes as “tenacious” and someone who did not shy away from El Salvador’s problems.
But when he left office, Funes was plagued by allegations of corruption. In 2016 he fled to Nicaragua. (*65*) always denied the allegations and said his problems were all part of political persecution.
However, he was tried in absentia six times and convicted each time.
For one thing, Funes was sentenced in May 2023 to 14 years in prison for negotiating a truce with gangs during his time in office to reduce murder rates and, in return, giving benefits to imprisoned gang leaders.
His last verdict came in June last year. (*65*) was sentenced to eight years in prison for receiving an airplane as a kickback for awarding a construction contract for a bridge project. (*65*) was also indicted for allegedly evading about $351 million in government funds.
Several former officials in his government, as well as his ex-wife Vanda Pignato, his children and various former partners, were also prosecuted for corruption. His former security minister, David Munguía Payés, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in brokering the gangs’ ceasefire.
Despite Funes’ complex presidency, the FMLN won again with President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, who ruled from 2014 to 2019. Sánchez Céren was one of the five guerrilla commanders in the civil war.
In recent years, Funes and El Salvador’s current president, Nayib Bukele, have frequently clashed and exchanged insults on social platforms. Bukele pushed for the former president to be prosecuted, particularly over his dealings with the gangs.
Bukele himself was accused of negotiating with gang leaders, but vehemently denied this and later crushed the gangs in a major years-long offensive.
