US to El Salvador: You need a new attorney general
As the Salvadoran legislature continues to debate the selection of its next attorney general, six Democratic members of the US House of Representatives have sent a letter (see below) to their counterparts encouraging them to select someone who is not an ally of impunity. Albio Sires (D-NJ), Norma Torres (D-CA), Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Jim McGovern (D-MA), Sam Farr (D-CA), and Eliot Engel (D-NY) were co-signers of the letter. The six members of Congress oversee several projects related to El Salvador, including the Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact.
It appears that El Salvador will not have a new attorney general until the new year as the FMLN and ARENA continue to be divided over Luis Martinez's reelection. Groups within both the FMLN and ARENA are at a stalemate - the divide is not simply one between the two largest parties. Members of the Salvadoran legislature are not satisfied with Martinez' handling of former president Francisco Flores, Cel-Enel, and various drug trafficking and organized crime cases. It doesn't help that El Salvador will become the world's most violent country as measured by homicide rates in 2015.
The attorney general will serve a three-year term. It's a tremendously important selection. Guatemala's Thelma Paz y Paz and Thelma Aldana have raised the region's expectations for what to expect from proactive attorney generals.
It appears that El Salvador will not have a new attorney general until the new year as the FMLN and ARENA continue to be divided over Luis Martinez's reelection. Groups within both the FMLN and ARENA are at a stalemate - the divide is not simply one between the two largest parties. Members of the Salvadoran legislature are not satisfied with Martinez' handling of former president Francisco Flores, Cel-Enel, and various drug trafficking and organized crime cases. It doesn't help that El Salvador will become the world's most violent country as measured by homicide rates in 2015.
The attorney general will serve a three-year term. It's a tremendously important selection. Guatemala's Thelma Paz y Paz and Thelma Aldana have raised the region's expectations for what to expect from proactive attorney generals.
As I wrote in August in Al Jazeera, "Even if the FMLN does not go the route of an international commission, it must work with the country's other political actors and elect an attorney general committed to strengthening the rule of law so as to support existing economic and security plans and consolidate educational and healthcare improvements."
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