Taca CEO found murdered

[latinaviation]

English wire services haven't picked this up yet. Federico Bloch, Taca's CEO until this past Friday when he resigned for family reasons, was found murdered yesterday on a highway near San Salvador, El Salvador.

Taca's new CEO is Enrique Beltranea, an officer at Aviateca before it was merged into Grupo Taca.

RIP, Federico.

Spanish article:
http://www.elmundo.com.sv/vernota.php?nota=35098&fecha=

[Panama Jack]

:ooh:

What a scary place El Salvador

[crazy_max]

Hey Panama Jack!!!

Are you serious? El Salvador a dangerous place?
You think that has anything to do with it?
Federico was not murdered, he was executed!
Ponete serio.

Saludos..

[Panama Jack]

Do I think El Salvador is a dangerous place? Yes I do, relative to other Central American countries. At least in Nicaragua, we regard El Salvador and Guatemala as such. Sure, maybe not like Iraq, but regionally.

The Salvadoran legacy of a steady diet of guns and violence have created a culture where I think too many people are desensitized or view this as "normal." Then also, is the issue of too many people without even a modicum of hope for the future, trying to survive. Guns are tools, like hammers and saws. If you have a hammer or a saw you eke out a living building house. Guns have other uses.

The question of whether Don Federico Bloch was executed also crossed my mind. In El Salvador, I wonder whether there is much of a distinction between "executions" and murder-- a look at the country's experience with death squads and vigilantes should clarify what I am trying to say. I don't doubt due to his position in Grupo TACA, and just his general status in Salvadoran society that he had enemies. I have even entertained the notion that he may have had a price on his head for people who perceive he had wronged them as CEO of TACA.

A don't know much about the Constitution of El Salvador, however, I suspect it is similar to the Constitution of Nicaragua. The Nicaraguan Constitution makes it clear that there is no death penalty. Although I personally disagree with this portion of the Nicaraguan Constitution, even if Sr. Bloch had caused misery upon a number of people in his company (I have heard some people express grievances) and as they probably see it "robbed them," the death penalty is not perscribed for robbery, extortion, or even murder.

Whether he was "murdered" or "executed" doesn't change my opinion of El Salvador. It is still a very dangerous country, and not coincidentally, not a holiday destination for us.

Some research on Google netted me the following thread (in Spanish):

Re: Federico Bloch, asesinado? ajusticiado? cobro de cuentas? (Univision.com) (http://foro.univision.com/univision/board/message?board.id=noticiaselsalvador&message.id=1976)

[Panama Jack]

Addition:

According to the Tico Times (Costa Rica):

In El Salvador, an average of eight murders a day occur. With a population of 6.6 million people, it is considered one of the most violent countries of Latin America.

[crazy_max]

Panama Jack.

Creo que no entendiste el punto que trate de hacer!!!!

Of course El Salvador is a dangerous place, that was not the point of my sarcastic remark.
What I meant, as I can see you also understood in part was that El Salvador being a dangerous place had nothing to do with Federico Bloch getting killed.
It has nothing to do with constitutions, laws, or such. It has to do with other things.
So you believe that destroying peoples lives, their families and livelihoods is just fine?
You should go to Grupo Taca and apply for a job, it seems like the right place for you.

[Panama Jack]

So what are you trying to say? You think employees put a hit on him? In reading the articles the circumstances seem rather contradictory and strange-- murder, assasination . . . . same thing in my books. I also somehow doubt that the investigation will come up with the real perpetrators and reasons. To me, all part of the way things are done in El Salvador, and the
other "paisitos" of the region.

As far as the part about destroying people's lives, families and livelihoods, I know TACA employees have been through tough times and their share of grievances, but abusive and insensitive management is "in" nowadays and not unique only to Grupo TACA. How many airline employees have not at some point indulged in some wishful fantasy that their boss might get run over crossing a street? :ouch:

[Always Moving]

En España se dice "quine con niños se acuesta.... mojao se levanta"

When you are in a mob-like organization......This kind of thing happen.

He should be happy they didn't do him earlyer!

AND the DON is it because of the MOB or because of respect.
LMAO

[Panama Jack]

Fair enough. Why the timing (after his "resignation")? As I say, all of this is rather mysterious to me.

[Panama Jack]

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 (http://www.univision.com/content/content.jhtml?chid=3&schid=181&secid=192&cid=417957)

La Prensa (Nicaragua) (http://www.laprensa.com.ni/archivo/2004/julio/09/elmundo/elmundo-20040709-01.html)

El Diario de Hoy (http://www.eldiariodehoy.com/noticias/2004/07/10/nacional/nac1.asp)

[latinaviation]

Thanks, Jack. I picked up a simiar article in the Miami Herald, but not nearly as detailed. I wonder how Bloch, who must have had security, came to know two youth gang members.