It is about the delivery of a plane that they received in exchange for the favor of the Guatemalan Jaime Ramón Aparicio, so as to favor him with the attribution of the construction of a bridge between La Libertad and Chalatenango.
Former President of the International Center for Fairs and Conventions (CIFCO) José Miguel Menéndez, known as Mecafé, will face another initial hearing on Sunday for alleged corruption stemming from the illegal adjudication for the construction of the San Isidro Bridge between San Pablo Tacachico , La Libertad and Nueva Concepción, Chalatenango.
The accusation was made yesterday by the Prosecutor’s Office of the 12th Court of Peace in San Salvador. Together with the former fugitive president, Mauricio Funes and Mecafé, the Guatemalan Jaime Ramón Aparicio Mejía, the legal representative of the Guatemalan company Servicios Calificados de la Construcción, SA (SERDELCO SA), was indicted.
Mecafé and Funes are accused of money laundering, but Aparicio Mejía bribed them with a plane to give him the construction of the bridge.
SEE ALSO: Prosecutor’s Office says Funes received a plane as a gift in exchange for delivering a million-dollar contract to a Guatemalan businessman
For Menéndez, the arrest was requested, 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 scheduled the hearing for next January 4, in which Funes and Aparicio would be informed about the accusations against them.
Funes is in asylum in Nicaragua and Aparicio is in prison in Guatemala for corruption similar to what he allegedly committed in El Salvador: bribing authorities with gifts or goods to win construction contracts.
SEE ALSO: CEL delivers 1,600 cases with alleged evidence against Funes for corruption in El Chaparral Dam
Aparicio Mejía is indicated by the Prosecutor’s Office that he bribed Funes and Menéndez to win the tender for the construction of the bridge at a cost of USD 8,487,716.94 and that it would be over the Lempa River in 2013.
“So what he did was give a plane as a gift, he gave it to Mr. Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena and Mr. 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 ensure that he would win the tender that took place in March 2013.
But the aforementioned tender was declared null and void by the evaluation committee because the Guatemalan company did not meet the technical conditions for the construction of the bridge.
“The work is being awarded at a cost of $ 8.4 million, but the company did not even present the bridge project, which led to the expiration of this process and was terminated,” the prosecutor said.
Upon termination of the bridge construction contract due to non-compliance with the execution of the work, the Guatemalan requested the return of the plane, but Funes and Mecafé did not return it and kept that asset.
Moreover, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, they made family trips to different countries and sometimes even rented it at a rate of $ 1,300 per hour.
Menendez, the prosecutor’s office says, has flown 47 flights to Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica and the United States, as well as to various parts of the country. The trips took place between June 27, 2013 and September 13, 2016.
While Funes made 16 trips to the United States, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama and El Salvador. These flights were carried out between March 28, 2013 and October 31, 2014, ie some were outside the presidential term, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.