Mexico grants refuge to former El Salvador official accused of corruption

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Mexico granted refugee status to former Salvadoran Minister of Public Works Gerson Martínez, accused of corruption for allegedly receiving irregular payments in the government of Mauricio Funes (2009-2014), his lawyer confirmed Monday.

Martínez, along with nine other former officials, including former President Salvador Sánchez Cerén (2014-2019), is facing criminal proceedings for illicit enrichment and money laundering crimes.

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Pedro Cruz, the defense lawyer of the former official, explained Monday to journalists in El Salvador that “Mr. Gerson Martínez has received refugee status for (political) persecution” and indicated that “in that sense, the Mexican government has taken kindly to examine the data of this case, as well as all the political, legislative and judicial situation of the country.”

According to the lawyer, the above is to “firmly determine that Mr. Martinez is politically persecuted in El Salvador and grants him refugee status by Mexican laws and international law, particularly with all the articles and regulations that come from the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees”.

Cruz added that “any attempt of extradition, capture or red notice will have to go through a long and cumbersome procedure of examination and there cannot be an automatic capture or extradition of Mr. Martinez while he has refugee status.”

The lawyer’s statements were made at the Second Peace Court of San Salvador. He arrived to present an appeal since said court sent the criminal proceeding to preliminary investigation and ordered provisional detention against all those implicated.

According to the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), Martínez allegedly received US$290,000 in bonuses during the Funes administration. This case stems from the investigation against Funes for the alleged embezzlement of US$351 million from the state budget.

Funes has lived in Nicaragua since 2016 and received in 2019 the nationality of that Central American country, whose Constitution prohibits the extradition of its citizens.

The other accused are former Treasury Minister Carlos Cáceres, former Health Minister Violeta Menjívar, former deputy ministers Hugo Flores and Erlinda Handal, and former FMLN deputy Calixto Mejía (2014-2017), as well as José López Juárez, former president of the Executive Port Commission (CEPA), and former private secretary of the Presidency Manuel Melgar and former Environment Minister Lina Pohl, who is out of the country and whose whereabouts are unknown.