9 people died in a helicopter crash in El Salvador, including the national police director and a financier on the run.
El Salvador's police director, other top-ranking officials and fugitive banker Manuel Coto were reportedly killed in a military helicopter crash Sunday night.
prativad 
The national police director, several other senior police officers, and a wanted banker were among the nine individuals slain in a military helicopter crash in a rural area of El Salvador, according to the military.
There is an ongoing inquiry into what caused the crash on Sunday night. It happened following the financier Manuel Coto's weekend-long abduction in Honduras and his subsequent transfer to Salvadoran police at the border.
Coto, a former manager of the COSAVI savings and loan cooperative, was one of 32 individuals connected to the cooperative's executives and staff members' misappropriation of more than $35 million, and she was the target of an Interpol arrest order.
El Salvador's military in a post on X said the air force helicopter crash occurred in the area of San Eduardo, Pasaquina, La Union. It said the director general of the National Civil Police, Mauricio Arriaza Chicas, and two deputies were aboard.
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said in a post on X that "what happened cannot remain as a simple ‘accident’" and must be investigated thoroughly "and to the ultimate consequences. We will request international help."
Bukele noted that Arriaza Chicas had led the government’s fight against the gangs that once dominated daily life for much of the Salvadoran population. Bukele’s harsh crackdown on the gangs and mass arrests of more than 80,000 people with little due process have been condemned by human rights organizations.
Security specialist Luis Contreras, said it was unlikely Arriaza Chicas’ death would negatively impact the war against the gangs, which the government claims it has all but eliminated.
"In El Salvador there are many experienced people and police commissioners who could replace the late director," Contreras said.
Contreras maintained that the gangs no longer have the capacity to react. "Crime is not eliminated, but rather neutralized," he said. "The neutralization El Salvador's government has achieved against the gangs has been almost 90%."
Bukele ordered flags to fly at half-staff Monday in remembrance of Arriaza Chicas, whom he described as a "national hero."
"All flags, throughout the national territory, as well as in our embassies and consulates, will fly at half-staff for three days in honor of the director of the National Civil Police," Bukele said on X.
Meanwhile, the bodies of the victims were taken to the capital in a caravan guarded by police.
:quality(85):upscale()/2024/08/13/745/n/1922564/63d0d94266bb8f78851bb7.16176576_.png)
