It is about the delivery of a plane they received in exchange for favoring the Guatemalan Jaime Ramón Aparicio so that they would favor him with the award of the construction of a bridge between La Libertad and Chalatenango.
Former President of the Center for International Fairs and Conventions (CIFCO) José Miguel Menéndez, known as Mecafé, will be heard again this Sunday for alleged corruption stemming from the irregular conviction for the construction of the San Isidro Bridge between San Pablo Tacachico , La. Libertad and Nueva Concepción, Chalatenango.
The accusation was leveled yesterday by the Public Prosecution Service in the Twelfth Peace Court of San Salvador. Along with the former fugitive President, Mauricio Funes and Mecafé, Guatemalan Jaime Ramón Aparicio Mejía, legal representative of the Guatemalan company Servicios Calificados de la Construcción, SA (SERDELCO SA), was charged.
Mecafé and Funes are accused of money laundering, but Aparicio Mejía has bribed them with a plane to allow him to build the bridge.
SEE ALSO: Prosecutor’s Office Confirms Funes Received Airplane as a Gift in Exchange for Delivering Millionaire Contract to Guatemalan Businessman
Arrest has been requested for Menéndez, but in the case of Funes and Aparicio Mejía, the court will make international arrangements with the judicial authorities of Guatemala and Nicaragua so that the two defendants can be informed of the charges against them.
The court has scheduled the hearing for January 4, during which Funes and Aparicio will be notified of the charges against them.
Funes is asylum in Nicaragua and Aparicio is in prison in Guatemala for corruption as he is said to have committed in El Salvador: bribing the authorities with gifts or goods to win construction contracts.
SEE ALSO: CEL Delivers 1,600 Folders Of Alleged Evidence Against Funes For Corruption In El Chaparral Dam
Aparicio Mejía is indicated by the prosecution to have bribed Funes and Menéndez to win the tender for the construction of the bridge for $ 8,487,716.94 and that it would cross the Lempa River in 2013.
“So what he did was give a plane as a present, he gave it to Messrs Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena and José Miguel Menéndez Avelar,” said one of the prosecutors in the case.
He added that Aparicio delivered the plane to them in January 2013 to make sure he would win the March 2013 tender.
But the aforementioned tender was annulled by the evaluation committee because Guatemalan society did not meet the technical conditions for the construction of the bridge.
“They will be awarded the work to the tune of $ 8.4 million, but the company did not even present the design of the bridge, which resulted in that trial being declared expired and brought to an end,” the prosecutor said.
Upon termination of the contract for the construction of the bridge for non-compliance with the execution of the work, the Guatemalan demanded return of the plane, but Funes and Mecafé did not return it and kept the property.
Plus, according to the prosecution, they took family trips to various countries and on some occasions even rented it at a rate of $ 1,300 an hour.
Menendez, the prosecution said, has made 47 flights to Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica and the United States, as well as various parts of the country. The trips were between June 27, 2013 and September 13, 2016.
While Funes made 16 trips to the United States, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama and within El Salvador. These flights were made between March 28, 2013 and October 31, 2014, which is to say that some flights were outside their presidential term, according to the prosecution.