San Salvador, Sep 9 (EFE).- The director general of the National Civil Police of El Salvador (PNC), Mauricio Arriaza Chicas, died on Sunday night when the Air Force helicopter in which he was traveling crashed for reasons still unclear. Other people also died, including a suspect in a multimillion-dollar embezzlement.
“We regret to confirm the death of all the people who were traveling in the UH-1H helicopter of the Salvadoran Air Force, which crashed in Pasaquina, La Unión,” the Salvadoran Armed Forces reported in X.
Without detailing the identities of the other occupants of the aircraft, the source said that “the aircraft was carrying, under police custody,” Manuel Coto, former manager of a bank investigated for the embezzlement of 35 million, “as well as the Director of the PNC, General Commissioner Mauricio Arriaza Chicas.”
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele lamented on X the death of Arriaza Chicas, who came to the leadership of the PNC with Bukele in 2019, but in previous governments had held high positions within this security body.
“Director Arriaza Chicas was a key player in bringing peace and security to our people,” Bukele posted on social media.
Arriaza Chicas was deputy director of Special Areas, head of the Finance Division and deputy chief of the Criminal Investigation Division of the PNC, which he joined as part of the first generation of officers in 1993.
The now deceased was educated at the School of the Americas in the United States and graduated from the Carabineros School of Chile in 1989. EFE
