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.