Salvadoran attorney general targets government official (May 23, 2016)

El Salvador's Attorney General Douglas Meléndez has already arrested nearly 20 people who helped carry out a 2012 gang truce credited with drastically reducing homicides in the country. (See May 6's post.) The detentions earlier this month include one of the truces' main mediators, former FLMN legislator Raul Mijango.

But Meléndez is aiming higher politically, and is preparing to ask Congress to impeach the defense minister, General David Munguía Payés, and remove his immunity, reports the New York Times.

Prosecutors investigating the gang truce have found there is enough evidence to ask for Munguía Payés' arrest, and have prepared a 152 page document asking legislators to remove his immunity (granted to all cabinet members) so he can be charged with illicit association and arbitrary actions, reports El Faro.

Portraying the arrests earlier this month as a politically motivated show in support of the government's "mano dura" crackdown on gang leaders, several pieces noted that Meléndez had not gone after top officials, including Munguía Payés, who served as the former administration's security minister at the time of the truce negotiation.  (See also May 9's post.)

Prosecutors are also going after Ricardo Perdomo, who now heads El Salvador's bank regulatory agency and served as the country’s director of intelligence during the truce.

Meléndez's actions put him on a potential collision course with President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, who has expressed support for Munguía Payés, notes the NYTimes.

(See last Friday's post on the increasing human and economic impact of gangs in El Salvador.)

News Briefs

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• This weekend Bolivia enacted a gender identity law allowing transsexual and transgender people to change their name, sex and photo on official and private documents, reports AFP.

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• Cuban cigars have long been banned in the U.S. due to the trade embargo. As the ban seems near its end, excitement is building for a huge economic opportunity. But tobacco production on the island has declined, and likely will not be up to the challenge of quick massive expansion, reports the Wall Street Journal.