El Salvador's new attorney general

Joshua Partlow recently profiled El Salvador's relatively new attorney general, Doug Melendez, in the Washington Post.

In a recent interview in his office, Meléndez stressed that no one is above the law, but he also warned that his office was underequipped and needed to be free of political interference. He said the office’s $43 million budget should be raised to at least $70 million, to hire more prosecutors, modernize equipment and add to a depleted fleet of vehicles. He also follows an attorney general, Luis Martínez, who faced corruption allegations and calls from U.S. lawmakers for his removal.

“If the attorney general’s office is given sufficient resources, and permitted to work, the office can do what’s necessary,” Meléndez said. “If you don’t have these two elements, one might have to look for other external mechanisms.”

Meléndez was alluding to neighboring Guatemala, where a U.N.-backed body called the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, known by the Spanish initials CICIG, has helped prosecutors take down a president and a slew of high-level officials on corruption charges. Meléndez said a CICIG-type organization was not necessary in El Salvador “at this moment,” but might be if his conditions weren’t met.

There is a lot riding on Melenez. He has to navigate a number of minefields. The FMLN doesn't want him looking into irregularities that have occurred on their watch. ARENA is just opportunistic and would prefer that Melendez focus on the last seven years of FMLN governance (!) rather than their previous twenty years in power. Nothing to see there.

Salvadorans mobilized last year in an effort to encourage the government to adopt a CICIES. The US and international community put pressure on El Salvador (as well as Honduras). Instead, FMLN representatives simply said that what the country needed was more resources and a more pro-active attorney general.

I still think that an international commission would be helpful. There's a great deal of corruption and intrigue in El Salvador which means that Melendez isn't going to be able to handle this on his own. He has already reached out to the US government for financial and political support. He's going to have to get things done in order for the critics to go away. Not speaking to the Salvadoran media won't work.