A criminal court in El Salvador handed down a five-year prison sentence on Friday for former deputy Erick García, who entered Congress in 2021 as a member of the ruling Nuevas Ideas party, linked to President Nayib Bukele. The political party expelled him in 2023 after accusations of corruption against him.
The Attorney General’s Office of the Republic announced on its official X account: “Former deputy Erick García has been sentenced to five years in prison for the crime of ideological falsehood.”
The sentence was imposed by the Second Criminal Chamber of the First Section of the Center, which evaluated all the evidence presented by the FGR to declare the former parliamentarian guilty, Efe noted.
#LastHour I Former deputy Erick García has been sentenced to 5 years in prison for the crime of ideological falsehood.
The Second Criminal Chamber of the First Section of the Center evaluated all the evidence presented by the @FGR_SV to declare García guilty, who signed… pic.twitter.com/qBo1XlrPd5
— Attorney General’s Office of the Republic El Salvador (@FGR_SV) May 3, 2024
The accusation detailed that García “signed authenticated documents for an amount of $90,000 with false information and events that did not happen,” which resulted in his prosecution and removal from Congress.
In August 2023, Congress, with a pro-government majority, withdrew the parliamentary immunity of García, who had previously been expelled from Nuevas Ideas and whose candidacy for the 2024 elections was invalidated.
García became the third Nuevas Ideas deputy stripped of his parliamentary immunity, following the cases of deputies José García and Gerardo Balmore Aguilar, also members of Nuevas Ideas.
According to the political party, the deputies met with Roy García, leader of Salvadorans in the United States, to “conspire and seek to divide the New Ideas bench in the Assembly in exchange for benefits.”
#FightCorruption | This morning, the ruling against Erick García will be announced, whom the @FGR_SV accuses of ideological falsehood.
This procedure takes place before the Second Criminal Chamber of the First Section of the Center of San Salvador. pic.twitter.com/Xr6D4KrcKR
— Attorney General’s Office of the Republic El Salvador (@FGR_SV) May 3, 2024
Former left-wing deputy guilty
On Thursday, a civil court in El Salvador ruled against Jorge Schafik Handal, former representative of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, declaring him guilty of illicit enrichment and ordering him to repay the State more than $171,300.
The resolution also included his family group, made up of his wife and two daughters.
Handal, who served as a deputy for the FMLN between 2009 and 2012, was the subject of an investigation that concluded that he could not justify the legal origin of the increase in his assets. As a result, in addition to the restitution of the funds, he was disqualified from holding public office for 10 years, the Efe news agency published.
As detailed by the Attorney General’s Office, 13 irregularities were identified during the investigation, which ranged from bank deposits to the acquisition of vehicles and payments made with credit cards, all of them using public funds irregularly.
The ruling came at a time of political change in El Salvador, as Congress began a new legislature in which the Nuevas Ideas party, led by President Nayib Bukele, dominates the political scene.
This marks the first time in the history of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, since its founding as a political party, that it does not have any representative in Congress. Despite this situation, it will not disappear as a party, although it faces a challenging political landscape.
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