Antonio Saca

Elías Antonio Saca González

Elías Antonio Saca González (born March 9, 1965 in Usulután ) is a Salvadoran media entrepreneur and politician. He was elected President of El Salvador on March 21, 2004 and held the office from June 1, 2004 to the end of May 2009. He belongs to the right-wing party ARENA . Prior to his political career, he was a well-known football commentator.

Life

Saca was born in Usulután in 1965 and moved to the capital of El Salvador, San Salvador , in the late 1970s . His parents were Palestinian immigrants and were originally from Bethlehem . From 1979 he attended the Instituto Cultural Miguel de Cervantes and began working in the radio. He graduated from the Colegio Cristóbal Colón. He left the radio station and became a sports editor for other radio stations. He later found a job with television, where he was sports director for over twelve years. He received several awards for his reporting.

politics

In 1987, Saca founded Radio América , in which he combined several state radio stations. In the following years he headed these stations and in 1997 he moved into the Association of Radio Stations of El Salvador, of which he became President for the following four years. In addition, he was twice elected president of a business association, which enabled him to enter politics. In 1997 he had already joined the right-wing conservative ruling party Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA) . In the 2004 presidential elections , Saca was surprisingly able to prevail with 57.7% of the votes against Schafik Jorge Handal . On June 1, 2004, he took office.

Arrest and conviction

On October 30, 2016, Saca was arrested along with six senior former government officials. He was accused - among other offenses - of money laundering , embezzlement of $ 246 million from the treasury and the formation of an illegal association. In September 2018 he was found guilty of embezzlement and money laundering by a court and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Individual evidence

1. ^ One corruption scandal after another , NZZ, November 24, 2016
2. ↑ Former President of El Salvador convicted of corruption , Deutsche Welle, September 13, 2018, accessed on November 8, 2018.

Web links

Commons : Elías Antonio Saca  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

predecessor	Office	successor
Francisco Flores Perez	President of El Salvador 2004 - 2009	Mauricio Funes