Elite Salvadoran police carried out summary executions - Factum investigation (Aug. 23, 2017)

Members of an elite corps of El Salvador's police carried out at least three summary executions, sexually assaulted two teenagers, and at least one case of extortion, reports Revista Factum based on an in-depth investigation. The four police officers accused of these crimes formed part of the Specialized Reaction Forces (FES) of the National Civilian Police (PNC).

Revista Factum carried out a three month investigation of the FES group under the command of Lieutenant Diaz Lico, with the participation of the agents Bladimir de Jesus Flores Avalos, Jose Roberto Ventura Gamez, and another agent identified as Mogwli. The four police officers were accompanied by a civilian identified as Rastreador (Tracker), whose testimony of the crimes committed by the group is known to the Attorney General’s Office (FGR).  Lack of supervision "lack of institutional supervision, in part, contributed to this unit becoming an extermination group within the PNC."

But Factum's investigation also demonstrates these "...are not isolated cases of rotten apples -- the figure used by diverse PNC directors and Ministers of Security since the formation of the civil police in 1992 -- or of extermination groups foreign to the institution," argues the magazine's editorial. "No, this journalistic dispatch certifies that the crimes have been executed by police personnel with tolerance of the institutional leadership."

"Today, with this investigation, we know that, in effect, the Salvadoran state opted to tolerate another gang within its breast, formed by high-level police with legal licenses to bear arms and exert lethal force ... These are not isolated cases, it is an institutional trend, tolerated by those who direct the institution and the government."

Factum's investigation includes interviews with dozens of witnesses, the review of autopsy reports from the murders, reviews of police data bases, and access to real time communication between Rastreador and Lieutenant Diaz Lico and other PNC members via social media groups used to exchange information and respond to petitions to execute gang members.

If verified, the actions described are directly criminal, said PNC director Howard Cotto, in an interview with Factum.

According to official sources, 293 gang members died in alleged confrontations between police and gang members so far this year. The investigation shows how in at least one of those cases, officers beat and killed an unarmed gang member, reports Factum in a piece focusing on the killing of Ivan Benjamin Carcamo Caballero, a 29-year-old man known as Bam Bam.

The magazine published extensive Whatsapp chats between police officers who share videos of a beaten gang member, a photo of a body with multiple gun wounds and advice over how to stage a homicide scene, and frank discussions. 

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