What began as a night of victory ended in mourning for the authorities of El Salvador this Sunday. After announcing the capture of a fugitive from justice accused of a multimillion-dollar bank fraud, the helicopter in which he was being transported crashed, leaving the entire crew dead, including the entire elite of the National Civil Police: the director, Mauricio Arriaza Chicas, and his two main deputy directors: Rómulo Pompilio Romero, deputy director of Investigations and Duglas Omar García Funes, deputy director of specialized areas.
The accident occurred at around 8:00 p.m. in the municipality of Pasaquina, in the department of La Unión, a mountainous area in the east of the country. Authorities confirmed that a total of nine people died, who were part of the entire crew of the UH-1H helicopter owned by the Salvadoran Armed Forces.
President Nayib Bukele said on Twitter that they will begin an investigation to determine the cause of the accident and noted that he will request “international help” to do so. However, some experts believe that the darkness of the night combined with the heavy rain that was falling at the time could have caused the crash.
Along with the high-ranking police officers, the detained Manuel Coto Barrientos, a businessman accused of diverting nearly 35 million dollars from a credit cooperative to accounts abroad, was traveling on the plane. Also traveling were Corporal Abel Antonio Arévalo, Lieutenants Alberto Quijano López and Jonathan Alexander Raymundo, as well as Sergeant Gerson Ricardo Batres Lucero and institutional communicator David Herman Cruz Guevara.
At around 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, local journalists were waiting outside the offices of the Central Investigations Division of the Police, after the authorities called a press conference to present Coto Barrientos, who had been handed over to the authorities on the border with Honduras. The capture of Cotto Barrientos generated controversy because it was learned that he was detained in the afternoon in the neighboring country accompanied by a human trafficker; however, the Salvadoran authorities had announced his capture 12 days earlier, on August 27, in a different country: Panama.
Prior to the conference, government media El Salvador Newspaper and El Salvador News They broadcast live the moment when the Honduran Police handed Coto Barrientos over to the Salvadoran Police at the border between the two countries. In the images, a Salvadoran agent reads his rights to the detainee while he listens, kneeling on the pavement, under the rain and with an impassive look. In the following images, the director of the Police can be seen together with the deputy director of Specialized Areas, Commissioner Douglas Omar García Funes, guarding the accused and getting into the helicopter.
Hours later, at around 10:00 p.m., residents of the municipality of Pasaquina, in the east of the country, posted videos on social media in which they warned about the crash of a helicopter. “Call the fire department,” a woman’s voice could be heard in the video.
At that time, the journalists who were waiting for the conference were notified that it would no longer take place, without receiving any further explanation. At 11:14 p.m. the official X account of the Salvadoran Armed Forces alerted about the accident. “We report that the UH-1H helicopter of the Salvadoran Air Force fell in the San Eduardo, Pasaquina, La Unión sector. Manuel Coto, former manager of COSAVI, was traveling on the aircraft along with the General Director of the @PNCSVCommissioner General Mauricio Arriaza Chicas,” the message said.
Five minutes after that publication, President Bukele took up the post and, far from clarifying the facts, he covered them with an aura of doubt: “What happened cannot be left as a simple “accident”, it must be investigated thoroughly and to the last consequences. We will request international help,” he wrote on his personal account.
After more than an hour of official silence, at 00:41 this Monday morning, the Armed Forces’ account confirmed the outcome of the accident: “We regret to confirm the death of all the people who were traveling in the UH-1H helicopter of the Salvadoran Air Force, which crashed in Pasaquina, La Unión. Manuel Coto, former manager of Cosavi, was being transported in the aircraft under police custody; as well as the Director of the @PNCSVCommissioner General Mauricio Arriaza Chicas,” the message said.
This morning, some local newscasts broadcast testimonies from residents of Pasaquina who supposedly saw the moment when the accident occurred. One resident interviewed by “La noticia SV” said that he could see how the helicopter was flying at a low altitude. “I made signals to them with my lamp to get up. They also responded with a light, but they crashed into the hill. It seems that it was overloaded,” he said.
On social media, President Bukele and other officials have lamented the incident and announced that all flags nationwide and in embassies and consulates will fly at half-mast for three days as a symbol of national mourning.
Arriaza Chicas was part of the first generation of PNC officers and had more than 30 years of experience. He served as director of the Police since June 1, 2019, at the same time that Bukele took office for the first time, and was reappointed on June 1, 2024, when the president took office for the second time. Arriaza Chicas was one of the main officials in leading the so-called ‘War on Gangs’ and also in operationalizing the “Exception Regime,” the government strategy that managed to dismantle the gangs at the same time that it has been strongly accused of police abuses and serious human rights violations.
#Salvadoran #police #chief #dies #plane #crash