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Corruption: El Salvador Orders of Arrest of Former President Salvador Sanchez Ceren and 9 Top Officials

SAN SALVADOR, July 22 (Reuters) – El Salvador has ordered the arrest of former president Salvador Sanchez Ceren and nine top officials from a past administration as part of a money laundering and corruption probe, the Attorney General’s office said on Thursday.

The office said Sanchez Ceren was out of the country, but five former high-ranking members of former president Mauricio Funes’s government from 2009 to 2014 have been detained.

Sanchez Ceren was vice president at the time, before becoming president in the following term. His successor, President Nayib Bukele, has drawn rebukes for a string of controversial moves, including removing the attorney general and closing an anti-corruption office. read more

The Attorney General’s office said Sanchez Ceren and the other officials – including former heads of the health, finance, labor, agriculture and environment ministries – are wanted on charges of money laundering, embezzlement and illicit enrichment after they were transferred unauthorized funds.

Sanchez Ceren could not immediately be reached for comment.

“They were favored with the payment of bonuses,” the Attorney General’s office said in a statement.

Speaking at a news conference, Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado added he would seek international help to locate Sanchez Ceren.

“We’ve issued arrest orders and later we will request a red alert for Interpol to activate its search mechanisms against Salvador Sanchez Ceren,” he said.

Bukele on Twitter described Sanchez Ceren as a “fugitive from justice” who left the country in December 2020.

Sanchez Ceren and the other members of Funes’ government belong to the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), the leftist party that Bukele represented early in his career, including as mayor of San Salvador.

Two years after becoming mayor in the capital, the FMLN expelled him, saying he had sowed division and violated party statutes, accusations that Bukele denies.

In recent months, some of Bukele’s own government officials, as well as opposition figures, have been deemed suspected of corruption by the United States. read more

Reporting by Nelson Renteria, Writing by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Michael Perry

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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The post Corruption: El Salvador Orders of Arrest of Former President Salvador Sanchez Ceren and 9 Top Officials appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.

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Sydney's crisis now national emergency as COVID-19 cases still surging

Sydney's coronavirus outbreak has turned from crisis to a national emergency and shows no sign of improving despite four weeks of lockdown.

Of the 136 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, 53 were infectious in the community, sparking fears of another significant spike today.

The situation worsened overnight when NSW Health confirmed 130 staff and patients at the Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital had been forced into isolation after two student nurses tested positive to COVID-19.

READ MORE: 'Great concern' as COVID-19 traces found in sewage in new region

The two cases are not linked and contact tracers are frantically trying to determine how many more people the virus could have spread to.

"Twenty-five staff were identified as close contacts of the first student nurse and have been isolating. There were no patients identified as contacts," the South Western Sydney Local Health District spokesperson told 9News.

"Extensive contact tracing of the second case continues. Five patients and more than 100 staff have been identified as potential contacts and are isolating."

There has been "no impact on the hospital's services or the delivery of care", they said.

Restrictions tighten

Restrictions have been tightened further in several local government areas in south-west Sydney while authorities fight to control the spiralling outbreak across the city, which has also claimed another life.

"There is no doubt that the numbers are not going in the direction we were hoping they would at this stage," Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

The so-called ring of steel around the Fairfield, Canterbury Bankstown, and Liverpool LGAs was expanded to include Cumberland and Blacktown.

READ MORE: Pfizer vaccine approved for children as young as 12

More than a quarter of Sydney residents are now effectively trapped at home, with only essential workers allowed to leave the area.

"What we are not seeing is the turnaround that we would have liked to see at this stage," Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said.

After National Cabinet on Friday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said NSW would not be getting any extra supply of the Pfizer vaccine to curb its outbreak, but second doses may be delayed so more people can get their first jab.

The lockdown in Sydney was working, Mr Morrison said.

He said the restrictions had prevented coronavirus infections growing exponentially, as it has in other countries.

"In Victoria, when they went through the lockdown, they saw cases rise and rise and rise for many, many weeks while they were in lockdown," Mr Morrison said.

"I would reassure people that what you are doing now is saving lives, it is working to bring this under control."