The report notes that there were acts of corruption, human rights violations and manipulation of data on people killed by COVID-19. These are the main conclusions and recommendations issued by the special commission.
The special commission that investigated the management of the pandemic revealed on Monday in a report the main findings that it found when analyzing the management of the pandemic on the part of the Government and the recommendations that it makes from these elements.
Among the information analyzed by parliamentarians are the causes of death of health workers throughout the academy, in this regard they stressed that the Ministry of Health and the ISSS did not provide the necessary and suitable biosafety equipment for care in patients with COVID-19.
The commission also recommends that Bukele dismiss Health Minister Francisco Alabi for irregularities and “conflict of interest” in handling the pandemic.
Deputies conclude that there was manipulation of data on people killed by COVID-19; that human rights were violated in containment centers; that there were acts of corruption in the transfer of $ 25 million from Social Security to El Salvador Hospital and that Public Works failed to meet the deadline to complete phase III of the special hospital for COVID cases .
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The special commission summarized in 14 items the shortcomings and violations by the government that they managed to identify during the pandemic.
1) The Executive Body systematically carried out irregular actions that affected the treatment, prevention and control of the COVID-19 Pandemic in El Salvador.
2) It was determined that the Spanish Government did not have, nor does it have to date, a comprehensive pandemic management plan.
3) President Nayib Bukele, through the Ministry of Health, lied, manipulated and misrepresented at his convenience, data on dead people, confirmed cases and tests performed on VOCID-19 during the pandemic.
4) The ISSS provided the Executive with a $ 25 million loan for El Salvador Hospital. The way in which the funds will be reimbursed to the insurance is not defined.
Most of the front-line personnel who died did not have the biosecurity tickets to deal with the pandemic. photo Archive
5) Bukele used national radio and television stations to “exaggerate and manipulate mathematical projections about the evolution of the disease,” in order to “instill fear and terror in an attempt to discipline the population.”
6) The front-line personnel who died were infected because Health and the ISSS did not give them in time the necessary and suitable biosafety equipment to care for COVID-19 patients.
7) The MOP failed to meet the deadline for the delivery of the construction project for phase III of the Hospital del Salvador, which was scheduled for the end of July 2020.
8) The Ministry of Tourism as the person in charge of contracting the properties to serve as “containment centers” established a lease agreement with a cousin of the Minister of Health, for $ 18,850.
9) After hearing the mayors of the municipalities where the government installed “sanitary” hoops it is concluded that they were established without technical criteria, for partisan political purposes, improvised and without consulting the mayors.
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10) El Salvador Hospital, despite being an exclusive care center for COVID patients, does not have the RT-PCR tests necessary to screen medical staff or people recovering there.
11) The government failed to carnetize and subsequently hire people who were classified by the Ministry of Health as “immunized against the disease.”
12) It was determined that in the containment centers the Executive violated and did not guarantee the right to property, to physical, mental health, to know his medical record, to physical and moral integrity, among other rights. .
13) The lack of a plan at the time of closing the airport of Comalapa generated disorder in the facilities of the same, mixing passengers from different countries, aggravating the situation of the pandemic.
14) It was determined that ISRI President and Asylum Director Sara Zaldívar is unaware of the diagnosis and location of more than 50 residents who were referred by the Ministry of Health to the hospital network.
The recommendations made are:
I. To the President of the Republic Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez, to his ministers and deputy ministers and other public officials belonging to the executive body who fulfill the mandate given to them by the Constitution in its Article 86, especially with regard to the collaboration with each other.
II. To the President of the Republic, Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez, the dismissal of the Minister of Health for the irregularities found and conflict of interest.
III. To the President of the Republic, his ministers and deputy ministers and other public officials belonging to the Executive Body, who cease the blockades on public information of an epidemiological nature.
IV. The Minister of Health is asked to do technical health work, away from any political inclination that is detrimental to the human rights of Salvadorans.
V. To the director of the ISSS, who respects the institution in which he is at the forefront, reminding that it is welfare, made up of the contributions of workers, employers and a minimum percentage by the State. That the institution is not financial or government box office, which under its responsibility is the health of 28% of the population to be these workers and contributors to the ISSS. That the ISSS is an independent institution of Central Government, which is established in Article 50 of the Constitution and Article 1 of the ISSS Act.
VI. To the president of the Salvadoran Institute of Integral Rehabilitation and the director of the Sara Zaldívar Care Center for the Elderly, who have control of the institution they are in charge of, and whose sole responsibility is the life and health of the residents of the center, which is inconceivable that at this date they do not know the whereabouts of more than 50 elderly adults who were under their care.
VII. To the Legislative Assembly in this regard, certify this report to the Attorney General’s Office, the Government Ethics Court and the Court of Auditors of the Republic and attach the audios and transcripts of the meetings of the Commission. Special of the days 5 and 18 of January of this year, with the purpose of that it investigates the possible to have committed crimes established in articles 326 and 327 of the Penal Code, embezzlement by fault, concussion respectively on the part of the Minister of Health, in the process and hiring of a “property as a containment house for COVID-19” owned by Mr. José Ángel Montoya Quiñónez. And the 82-page report received from the Ministry of Tourism is sent.
VIII. To the Legislature, which certifies copies of this report to the following international bodies: Pan American Health Organization, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, United States Congress and the United States Senate.
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IX. To the Legislative Assembly in this sense, certify the report to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Government Ethics Court in order to investigate the possible having committed crimes by the president of the Salvadoran Institute of Comprehensive Rehabilitation and the director of the Sara Zaldívar Center for the Elderly, in relation to the fact that they do not know the location or state of health of 51 elderly adults who were under their guardianship.
X. To the Legislative Assembly in the sense certify the present report to the Office of the Public Prosecutor, the Court of Governmental Ethics and the Court of Auditors of the Republic, in order to investigate the possible having committed crimes by Council Director and current director of the Salvadoran Institute of Social Security, in relation to the loan for $ 25 million delivered to the Central Government.
1,750 deaths from COVID-19 and 58,023 infections
The report was released at a time when El Salvador reached 1,750 coronavirus deaths with the deaths of eight more people reported on Sunday, while confirmed infections exceed 58,023, according to official data updated Monday.
Between January 2 and February 14 this year, 399 deaths were recorded by COVID-19 and the days when the most deaths were recorded are still the 13th and 19th of last month, with 12 dead every day, according to data hosted on the site covid19.gob.sv/diarios.
Presidential Commissioner Carolina Recinos said Monday in a television interview that the government is “waiting” for the entry of vaccines to be accelerated. However, a specific date for their entry into the country has not yet been provided.