El Salvador police chief dies in helicopter crash

Police Chief General Mauricio Arriaza Chicas has led the crackdown on criminal gangs in El Salvador since March 2022. (EPA Images pic)

SAN SALVADOR: El Salvador’s police chief known for leading the “war” against gangs has been killed in a helicopter crash, the military said Monday.

Police Commissioner General Mauricio Arriaza Chicas has led the crackdown on criminal gangs in El Salvador since March 2022. The campaign has already netted nearly 82,000 suspected gang members, thanks to a system that allows arrests without a warrant.

“We regret to confirm the death of all occupants of the Salvadoran Air Force UH-1H helicopter that crashed in Pasaquina,” about 180 km east of the capital San Salvador, the military said on the social media platform X.

Also in the helicopter was Manuel Coto, a former manager of the credit union Cosavi, who was under police guard, the company said. The identities of the other occupants of the plane were not released.

Civil protection tactical teams were en route to the crash site to provide assistance, the service reported on X.

President Nayib Bukele said he would seek international help in investigating the crash.

“What happened cannot remain an ‘accident’, it must be thoroughly investigated and to the final consequences. We will ask for international help,” Bukele wrote on X.

“Director Arriaza Chicas played a fundamental role in bringing peace and security to our people,” he said.

“We will investigate this to the end, but no one can bring back our national hero.”

Defense Minister Rene Francis Merino Monroy described Arriaza Chicas as “a strategist who changed the course of the (national police).”

“We will continue to fulfill the mission until we reach the land you dreamed of,” he wrote on X.

Bukele ordered all flags in the country, including those at El Salvador’s embassies and consulates, to be flown at half-mast for three days in honor of Arriaza Chicas.

The president’s brutal crackdown on gangs has been criticized by human rights groups, but has also earned him skyrocketing popularity. Supporters credit him with bringing a sense of normalcy to a society plagued by violence.

Coto was on the run after allegedly embezzling some $35 million.

He was arrested in Honduras on Sunday while “traveling to the United States with a human trafficker,” after which he was handed over to Salvadoran authorities through Interpol, Honduran Security Minister Gustavo Sanchez said on X.