The former president of this country is sentenced to 14 years in prison, here is what he is accused of

El Salvador's former president Mauricio Funes, exiled in Nicaragua, was sentenced in absentia by a court in San Salvador on Monday to 14 years in prison after negotiating a truce during his tenure with the Maras, the gangs that terrorized the population. of the Central American country.

This ceasefire had entered into force in 2012 and had the support of the Organization of American States (OAS), which assumed the role of "guarantor".

The truce lasted only a few months.

The former head of state was sentenced to eight years in prison for membership in an "illegal organization" and another six for abuse of office, El Salvador's attorney general said on Twitter.

In addition to Fune, his government's former Minister of Justice and Security, David Mungia Pages, was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

The defendants were accused of "allowing the gangs to strengthen financially and expand territorially in exchange for a decrease in the homicide rate from 2011 to 2013, so that the government of the time would benefit for the elections", argued the prosecution. He claimed that both politicians acted themselves as "members of the gang".

Despite criticism of the authorities' methods by non-governmental organizations and the Catholic Church, nine out of ten Salvadorans approve of the president's relentless "war" against gangs.

His critics, however, point to a wave of arbitrary arrests and detentions, the torture of suspects and the deaths of dozens of prisoners.

The current government has passed legislation that defines gangs as "terrorist" organizations.