Was surprised to read this yesterday, in the Tico Times (July 9, 2004):
SAN SALVADOR (AFP)-- The Salvadoran police this week arrested six gang members-- two of them minors-- for their alleged participation in the murder of Grupo TACA airlines' former president Federico Bloch, who was shot to death in his car outside the capital April 26.
"We have detained those responsible for the death of señor Federico Bloch," informed police commissioner Ricardo Meneses, who added that the former TACA president apparently had some sort of friendship with the two 16-year-old suspects.
"In the process of the investigation, we discovered that there was a relationship between the victim and the two minors, with whom [Bloch] had a personal quarrel knowing that they were members of a gang [Mara Salvatrucha]," Menses said.
According to the police investigation, local cell leader Juan Carlos Alfaro ordered Bloch's assassination.
The 50-year-old ex-president of TACA was found dead in his car on the main highway in the municipality of Nuevo Cuscatlán, 10 kilometers west of San Salvador, near the exclusive neighborhood of Quintas de Santa Elena (TT, April 30).
Police are not discussing possible motives.
Official statistics show that members of Mara Salvatrucha and rival gang M18 have committed 70% of the 1,040 homicides in El Salvador during the first five months of this year.
El Salvador's provisional anti-gang law expired last Sunday, before President Antonio Saca was able to pass his controversial new "super strong hand" anti-gang legislation (TT, June 18). The President assured Salvadorans this week that the government would not leave them unprotected from gang violence, despite the expired law.
Maras Salvatruchas supuestos asesinos
La Prensa (Nicaragua)
El Diario de Hoy