Merino Monroy confirmed several events reported within the armed forces that El Diario de Hoy has revealed as those of two officers fired. Among them, the colonel presented the report on the minister’s son, a frigate lieutenant. The officer gave his version of these and other cases.
Defense Secretary Francis Merino Monroy, in an interview on Channel 12 this morning, avoided referring to the specific case of his son, frigate lieutenant Gerardo Antonio Merino Marroquín, who was reported by his superiors for breaking the no-drink rules. and for making a scandal with the Comalapa Air Brigade in complete distress over COVID-19.
“That was not the case,” the minister initially responded to the question about that incident. He went on to say that many things happen within the armed institution and that he does not see them all, but that when there are offenses that exceed normal levels, they are broadcast in the Court of Honor.
We propose: Lieutenant denounces that the armed forces fired him for his sexual orientation
Monroy did not deny but did not explain the incident involving his son, a fact reflected in a memorandum, a copy of which was published by El Diario de Hoy on February 7, in which a colonel denounced various arbitrariness those are those that arise within the armed forces.
One arbitrariness denounced by the pilot’s pilot colonel, Eduardo Alfonso Salazar García, was that he was fired over a superior’s decision to punish a group of officers, including Minister Merino Monroy’s son , for violating the standard not to eat liquor because they were quartered and available to meet any requirement given the health emergency.
Colonel Salazar García, who was second in command of that brigade, told El Diario de Hoy that he retired to his bedroom on March 20 to rest while the junior officers remained on the field. Suddenly he woke up to a scream and when he asked what was going on, they told him it was a group of officers drinking hard liquor.
Also: The armed forces fired a lieutenant for getting drunk but did not punish the minister’s son who did the same
The Colonel ordered them to go to sleep, and the next day he gave the report to his brigade commander, who communicated to the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces (EMCFA) about the serious offense committed by nine pilots. and two naval frigate lieutenants.
As punishment, the 11 officers were sent to Sumpul Command to guard the borders. According to Colonel Salazar, when Secretary Merino Monroy heard about his son’s punishment, they blamed him and asked “who did he believe” to do such a thing. They arrested him for claiming not that incident involving the minister’s son, but some other cause the Colonel said was “unjustified.”
Yesterday, Minister Merino Monroy pointed out to Colonel Salazar that he had amassed a series of crimes and that he was being punished for other acts, he also wondered if there are people who are justified by not being able to account for their actions. But Colonel Salazar told El Diario de Hoy that not only was he fired after that incident involving the minister’s son, but that he had made no mistake to demote him or expel him from the institution.
The case of the gay lieutenant
A case similar to that of the defense minister’s son was that of Lieutenant Cristian Adalberto Castro Grijalva, who has sued and even filed his resignation over a public highway scandal, but the background is his sexual orientation.
You may be interested: the PDDH is investigating the case of a lieutenant fired for being gay
Minister Merino Monroy confirmed the lieutenant’s two-year suspension, but insisted it was for causing “disorder” and for “his conduct on the open road” and not because of his sexual orientation. He also denied that his rights had been violated.
According to Merino Monroy, this case was analyzed by the Court of Honor and then brought to the presidential home’s consideration, where the process followed to the law was followed, and even said the Attorney’s Office for the Defense of Human Rights that did not consider it to have violated the officer’s rights.
Lieutenant Castro Grijalva describes himself as homosexual and says that this was never a secret within the military unit where he was. He explained that he was fired after punishing and humiliated him to the point where he sent him to the hill of Meanguera Island, in La Unión, a place where he had no drinking water, electricity, or latrine.
He was charged with drunkenness and scandal on the open road after partying with some friends at a spot in San Francisco Javier, in Usulután, something he denies saying there was never a scandal but as part of the fun they became feminine garments. He says a senior officer there and his immediate boss took photos of him and although he denied it when they told him it was illegal, he withdrew and threatened them saying that “they already knew what they were doing. goods.”
The lieutenant was arrested by police on April 14, 2020 for the crime of opposition, but two days later the prosecutor’s office ordered that he and another inmate be released because there was no crime to prosecute. The drunkenness evaluations the Institute of Legal Medicine made them found him to be in a normal condition, the officer says.
The colonel who led the 9F’s military attack on the OAS
The Secretary of Defense also confirmed that Colonel Rafael Antonio Urquilla Álvarez has been appointed as a defense attaché in the permanent mission with the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington.
When asked about the decision to send him to a diplomatic post after commanding the military operation in the Legislative Assembly on February 9, 2020, the minister said that the promotion of Colonel Urquilla Álvarez is a ‘normal’ movement in the Institution takes place after he analyzes the capabilities and capabilities to exercise a foreign policy position of the armed forces.
Recommended: Full Miniseries: A dozen journalists reveal unpublished facts about 9F
Merino Monroy also said that this kind of promotion is happening because the officers who come in need need a command capability and therefore it is necessary to open those spaces.
Regarding the push to hold the armed forces responsible for accompanying President Nayib Bukele in a coup attempt on February 9, 2020, Merino Monroy said this is like “ grinding water, ” that is, grinding nothing, because everything. the military only provided security to President Bukele and that they did nothing from the law.
The 9F has remained a black day in Salvadoran democracy due to the violent invasion of the Blue Room by Bukele, who also took over the President of the Assembly and opened the plenary in an attempt to pressure him to approve a loan.
Merino Monroy also defended the “transparency” with which he says the armed forces work today and which even makes it possible to know insights such as those that senior officials have denounced. In fact, he said that during the recent meeting with the U.S. Embassy Charge d’Affaires, he had not asked to play an apolitical role in the electoral process, but that they assured him that they are playing that role as the armed forces and that the official emphasized it.