2023-09-02 05:59:06
Photo courtesy Legislative Assembly
With 78 votes, the deputies of the Legislative Assembly eliminated the constitutional jurisdiction of ARENA deputy Alberto Romero. Now, he will have to face criminal proceedings for the crimes of illicit enrichment and money laundering charged by the Attorney General’s Office.
This process began after, on August 23, in plenary session 120, the Attorney General of the Republic, Rodolfo Delgado, asked this State body to withdraw the legislator’s immunity so that he could be criminally prosecuted.
“Once again, justice has been done in this plenary session,” said the President of the Assembly, Ernesto Castro, who also directed the Special Commission for Pre-trial proceedings against Romero.
According to what was stated in the extraordinary plenary session number nine, the parliamentarian from Cojutepeque, Cuscatlán, has a total of $1,162,388.05 distributed in four bank accounts. In addition, there are another 28 accounts that will have to be investigated by the relevant authorities. That is why the FGR accuses him of the aforementioned crimes.
Having taken away his jurisdiction, the ARENA party member was suspended from his position as a legislator, which he held for 23 years, according to records.
The Code of Criminal Procedure, in its article 333, establishes that “an official, public authority or public employee, who, due to his position or duties, obtains an unjustified increase in assets, will be punished with imprisonment from three to ten years.”
Likewise, the Law Against Money Laundering and Other Assets, in its article 4, determines that money and asset laundering shall be understood as any operation, transaction, action or omission aimed at concealing the illegal origin and legalizing assets and securities. from criminal activities committed inside or outside the country.
In the extraordinary plenary session, parliamentarian Giovanny Zaldaña, prosecutor in the case, highlighted the request for impeachment, due to the indications of corruption that he presented.
“The prosecutor’s party asks this plenary session of the legislature to disregard and place the deputy of the ARENA party, Alberto Romero, at the order of the Prosecutor’s Office, after having found sufficient evidence for the commission of acts of corruption,” said Zaldaña.
The new legislature is setting a precedent in the fight against corruption by removing the immunity of legislators, regardless of the party they belong to, to make them available to the corresponding authorities.
“In his defense, it was said that we would be the executioners of democracy and yes, we are the executioners of the black briefcases, of the politician of the past, of the democracy that the FMLN and ARENA established and we are the executioners of Alberto Romero, already Given the evidence, we can see how he plundered the Salvadoran people,” said parliamentarian Zaldaña.
For her part, Deputy Marcela Pineda, who also worked as a prosecutor, stated: “this Legislative Assembly is not the house of Beto Romero, nor is it the house of the corrupt. This is the house of the people and in this house the rats and pests are removed”.
In this regard, the head of the Nuevas Ideas fraction, Christian Guevara, recalled that in the past no deputy had immunity for corruption removed and “in this new legislature, in just two and a half years, this would be the fifth lawless deputy ”.
“Previous years there was no Legislative Assembly with notorious honesty and probity, which is why Salvadorans asked for a change. In the administration of President Ernesto Castro all this changed, corruption is being eliminated. Salvadorans, make your homeland, stop choosing corrupt people,” said Deputy Alexia Rivas.
tax investigations
An investigation carried out by the Probity Section of the Supreme Court of Justice determined that there were several irregularities in the deputy’s assets, who could not justify the origin of $445,766.05. On August 14, the Chamber of the Second Section of the Cojutepeque Center found him responsible for Romero’s illicit enrichment and ordered that said amount be paid to the State.
This served for the FGR to delve into the investigations of the periods between May 1, 2009 and December 31, 2022, time in which Romero has served as owner deputy for the department of Cuscatlán. The findings revealed that the official has not been able to justify $1,162,388.05, which is why the authorities attribute the crimes of enrichment and money laundering to him.
The defender of the tricolor parliamentarian, Ernesto Alfredo Parada, assured before the plenary session that Romero is innocent, because the conviction is not final.
“I never imagined being here in front defending an innocent (Alberto Romero). I am defending Alberto, whom I consider my friend, but what he is accused of is not a firm process, rather it is a weak sentence because the appeal and evidence are lacking,” said Parada.
Relatives abandoned Romero
On the afternoon of August 23, the member of the tricolor party was detained by agents of the National Civil Police (PNC), hours after he left the legislative compound during the development of plenary session number 120.
That same day, after the Prosecutor’s Office asked the parliamentarians to withdraw Romero’s constitutional jurisdiction, Ana Lourdes de Romero and Lourdes Gabriela Romero de Marroquín, wife and daughter respectively, left the country, by land, for Guatemala.
In the Special Pretrial Commission, the tax deputies summoned the two relatives of the aforementioned and the former adviser to the Legislative Assembly María de Jesús Guardado, who served in the position until April 30, 2021. Like Romero’s relatives, she left El Salvador; she did so on August 24, 2023 and her destination was the United States, according to Migration and Aliens records.
Others summoned were the former administrative collaborator of this State Organ, Ricardo Gutiérrez Romero (who has resided in the United States since April 22, 2021); to the exordinance of the institution, David Fernando Vaquerano, who worked until February 1, 2018 (he has lived in the United States since February 6, 2018).
The assistant from the ARENA faction, Ana María Gertrudis Ortiz de Lemus, was also summoned and was the only one who would appear before the commission.
“Party collaborators made various deposits to the bank accounts of Romero, his wife, and his daughter. Will this be a mechanism between ARENA employees together with their deputies?” questioned the deputy Marcela Pineda.
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