Sunday 19 May 2013

Salvadorean Court orders minister, police chief dismissed

The Constitutional Affairs Chamber of El Salvador's Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) declared as unconstitutional on 17 May the earlier appointments of the Minister of Justice and Public Security and the National Civil Police chief for being soldiers, obliging President Mauricio Funes to replace them with provisional appointments. The outgoing Justice Minister David Munguía Payés adopted a supportive attitude in preceding months toward the ceasefire declared between Mara gangs in March 2012 as a first step toward their disarmament, and the gangs were reported to have expressed displeasure with the court order, El Salvador's El Mundo reported. Mr Funes named the deputy-minister of justice Douglas Moreno as acting justice and security minister, and named the deputy police chief Mauricio Ramírez Landaverde to replace the outgoing head of the National Civil Police General Francisco Ramón Salinas Rivera, El Mundo reported. The Chamber ruled that an agreement signed by the executive branch in November 2011 naming Munguía minister had violated the principle of the separation of national defence and policing duties pursuant to Article 159 of the Constitution. It also declared unconstitutional an agreement of January 2012 that led to the outgoing police chief's appointment, pursuant to Article 168 of the Constitution requiring a civilian to run the National Police. A former public security minister separately told the daily El Diario de Hoy that the reshuffle should not per se reverse the ceasefire with the Mara gangs, which depended on the gangs and any agreement they had with the government, the website elsalvador.com reported on 18 May. The former minister Francisco Bertrand Galindo said the "future of the ceasefire between the gangs depends on the gangs, we have nothing to do there. Now the future of the Government's ceasefire with the gangs depends on the real terms the Government negotiated with them, the problem is we do not know these terms," elsalvador.com reported.

President says 1,800 criminals recently caught around Colombia

President Juan Manuel Santos said on 16 May that the state had caught more than 1,800 guerrillas and suspected criminals in 45 days as part of ongoing security operations across the country, Caracol radio reported that day. These operations, directed at the country's two communist guerrilla forces, organized-crime gangs and petty crime, had he said attained 65 per cent of their objetives with 20 days left before their scheduled termination; they have included raids on drug-dealing hubs in 20 cities. Mr Santos said the state had caught 493 guerrillas and some 1,400 crime suspects in this period, Caracol reported. One of the recently detained was the guerrilla dubbed Sandino, identified as a field commander in Front 54 of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Bogotá's Radio Santa Fe reported on 16 May. The army caught Sandino in the locality of San Juan near the capital; his unit was active in the Sumapaz area in the Cundinamarca department outside Bogotá. Authorities believed Sandino was involved in "logistical" work for the FARC in and around Sumapaz, meaning assuring material supplies and financing through extortion. He was also sought for his suspected role in a bomb attack in February 2013 that killed three soldiers in Cundinamarca, Radio Santa Fe reported. The broadcaster also reported on 18 May the arrests of 20 crime suspects in nine departments including Bogotá in ongoing security operations. The detained were sought in relation with crimes including murder, extortion and drug trafficking, it stated.