Former Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes has died in Nicaragua, according to Reuters

(Reuters) – Former Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes died late on Tuesday in Nicaragua, where the leftist leader had lived since 2016 to avoid corruption charges in his country. He was 65.

Nicaraguan authorities confirmed the death of Funes, who was president of El Salvador from 2009 to 2014, in a statement on the government’s official website.

Funes died of a “severe chronic illness,” the statement said, without further details.

Five fled El Salvador for Nicaragua ten years ago, after Salvadoran prosecutors launched a criminal investigation into corruption charges.

Funes was born in October 1959 in San Salvador. After graduating from the Jesuit University of Central America (UCA) with a degree in literature, he taught in Catholic schools and rose to prominence as an award-winning journalist.

He started out as a war correspondent and was a CNN reporter, but is best known for his in-depth interviews with politicians and exposing corruption on his popular interview show.

After two decades of journalism, Funes retired in 2011. In 2009, he retired to run for the presidency of the far-left Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), which was formed during the country’s 1979-1992 civil war.

The FMLN was a cornerstone of Salvadoran politics for decades before President Naib Bukele’s New Idea Party disrupted the country’s two-party system and took control of all branches of government.

During Funes’ five-year tenure, he developed a variety of social, educational, and health programs, but the administration was marred by bribery deals, in which the administration gave benefits to gang leaders to reduce killings.

In the year By the time his term ended in 2014, Funes had faced numerous legal proceedings for embezzlement, money laundering, bribery, tax evasion and leaking classified documents.

He called the charges political persecution from the Salvadoran right and fled to Nicaragua with his family in 2016. Funes was granted Nicaraguan citizenship, which protects him from extradition.

In the year In May 2023, Buckele’s administration sentenced him to 14 years in prison without the gang’s consent, accusing him of making deals with gangs like MS-13 himself.

Funs with Bukele are often shared on social media.

In the year In 2014, the FMLN, led by President Salvador Sánchez Seren, remained in power. But in the year In 2019, the populist, authoritarian Bukele won the election, overwhelmingly rejecting the FMNL. In last year’s Congress elections, FMNL did not win a single seat.

Sánchez Seren is currently in exile in Nicaragua.