With US money, El Salvador to begin wiretapping to stop organized crime
鈥� A version of this post ran on the author's . The views expressed are the author's own.
El Salvador's government will start wiretapping and telecommunications intercept operations from a new center beginning in May (link in Spanish).聽
The Center for Telecommunications Interception (CIT) was funded with a $5 million grant from the United States. The National Assembly had given the government the power to eavesdrop on phone calls in a law passed in February 2010. The ability to tap phone calls is described as a tool for combating organized crime.
The website InSight Crime for these actions in El Salvador and other Central American countries:
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will help train Salvadoran officials, including police and magistrates, in wiretapping operations, stated El Salvador's Attorney General Romeo Barahona. The funds provided by the US will come through the Central America Regional Security Initiative ().
The US has been pushing "intelligence-led policing" in Central America over recent years, advocating wiretapping operations across the region, . With the passing of a wiretapping law in Honduras , all seven Central American countries now have legislation in place that allows the practice.聽
The US had been pushing especially hard for such a law to be passed in El Salvador, it seems, with a聽 revealing that "intense engagement" by US officials over a two-year period helped break a legislative deadlock over the new law. 聽As well as being admissible in El Salvador's courts, evidence gathered from CIT operations can also be used in the US thanks to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) .
鈥�聽Tim Muth聽covers the news and politics of El Salvador on his .
Get daily or weekly updates from CSMonitor.com delivered to your inbox. .
