Gunmen Kill Salvadoran Corruption Investigator

Right-wing gunmen early Sunday shot and killed a government investigator who was probing official corruption, officials of the ruling Christian Democratic Party said.

The victim was Pedro Rene Yanes, who worked with a team of 10 investigators appointed by President Jose Napoleon Duarte in June. He reportedly was looking into suspected fraud by rightist officials in the administration that preceded Duarte’s.

The shooting took place Sunday morning during a party in the small town of Concepcion de Oriente in far eastern El Salvador, according to Presidential Minister Julio Rey Prendes.

Yanes’ bodyguards returned fire and killed one of the assailants, Reinaldo Osorto, who was a mayoral candidate of the right-wing Arena Party. The bodyguards also killed Osorto’s father-in-law.

Duarte, while viewing Yanes’ body in a San Salvador funeral parlor, said the murder “obviously had political character” and was “a kind of conspiracy.” However, Duarte stopped short of tying the killing to any one of Yanes’ probes.

The murder is certain to increase already strong hostility between Duarte’s Christian Democrats and Arena. The Christian Democrats have long charged that Arena is just a front for right-wing death squads and is responsible for scores of political assassinations.

Yanes, the presidential commissioner for ethics, was reportedly looking into the flow of government money into non-existent businesses, as well as graft in the Agricultural Development Bank, the Public Works Ministry and the national lottery, all at one time under control of rightist officials.

Eight men, who were not identified, were arrested. Besides the three dead, at least two people were wounded, one a cousin of Yanes who is in critical condition.

Yanes had received death threats because of his work, Rey Prendes said, and was cautioned against going to visit his mother in Concepcion de Oriente.

The turmoil broke out during an Epiphany Sunday party after someone threw a drink in Yanes’ face during an argument, Rey Prendes said. Shortly afterward, Osorto and another man shot Yanes in the back and head with .45-caliber pistols.