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Recently Appointed OAS Adviser Taken Into Custody by Police in El Salvador on Embezzlement Charges

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Law enforcement forces in El Salvador have detained Ernesto Muyshondt, former San Salvador mayor and recently appointed adviser to the General Secretariat of the Organisation of American States (OAS) over alleged embezzlement of public funds, the national civil police said on Saturday.
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Muyshondt, an opposition politician who governed the El Salvadorian capital from 2018-2021, is facing a judicial process over suspicions of affiliating with gangs for electoral fraud in the 2014 presidential election.

"Today we detained the former mayor, [supporter of the Nationalist Republican Alliance] ARENA Ernesto Muyshondt for a new crime after a warrant issued by the Prosecutor General's Office improper appropriations of withholdings to the detriment of the Public Treasury", the police tweeted, also recalling the electoral fraud case in which he is accused of having negotiated with gangs in exchange for their votes.

Following Muyshondt's appointment to the OAS, the government of El Salvador on Friday withdrew from an anti-corruption deal with the organisation that entails legal reforms to prevent corruption via the international Commission Against Impunity in El Salvador, backed by the OAS.

Current San Salvador Mayor Mario Duran maintains Muyshondt committed crimes linked to embezzlement, ideological falsehood, and arbitrariness during his term in office. In particular, according to Duran, his predecessor left more than $46 million in debts to the city administration.

For his part, Muyshondt says the lawsuits against him are politically motivated.

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