President Funes signed the Law Against Money and Asset Laundering without noticing the lack of special controls for Politically Exposed Persons.
The special controls for Politically Exposed Persons (PEP), was one of the reforms that was left out because the deputies did not approve it and the President, Mauricio Funes did not suggest it despite this being a recommendation by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force Group (CFATF by its initials in Spanish).
Despite the increase in extortion payments, 33 drivers died at the hands of criminals in 2013.
Catalino Miranda, representing the Federation of Transport Unions (FECOATRANS) said "this amount of money was paid by the employers of the 10,500 units that exist at the national level." In 2012 it reported $18 million in extortion payments.
Miranda said that for 4 years the rate of transport has not increased despite the raise in fuel, spare parts and the complications of traffic.
Amendments to the recently approved law are still deficient because they do not include regulations such as special controls for Politically Exposed Persons.
From a press release issued by the Salvadoran Social Economic Development Foundation (Fusades):
Background
Money laundering consists of making it seem that wealth acquired through illegal activities, such as political corruption and drug trafficking, comes from legal activities.
Forecasting more risk of social unrest for Nicaragua than Costa Rica in 2014, indicates ignorance of the political, economic and social realities of Central America.
EDITORIAL
The print edition of "The World in 2014" by The Economist Intelligence Unit reported a measurement of the risk of social unrest in 150 countries, categorizing them into 5 levels.
Guatemala's foreign minister in Europe has proposed a transition to the regulation of drugs in order to control their health effects, and to take away economic power from the drug cartels.
An article in Prensalibre.com reports that "The Chancellor took part in a seminar yesterday run by British Group of the IPU in which MPs from 30 countries discussed "the reform of drug policy" and the experiences of each nation over the last 18 months, particularly in the framework of the OAS (Organization of American States) . "
Missing or false information encourages consumers who are defrauded, to be mislead, especially with regards to vacation plans.
Reports have been made of huge losses worldwide due to scams related to vacation plans due to lack of tourist information and false advertising.
More than 42 consumer protection agents in Africa, Asia, America, Europe and Oceania will meet at the Forum entitled 'Improving Consumer Protection in a Global Economy', which is taking place in Panama until October 11.
Extortion and theft in shops and transport trucks has led to the closure of many small businesses.
According to Howard Gutierrez, president of the Chamber of Commerce, San Miguel subsidiary, crime is unstoppable and the authorities are not doing enough to curb it. In that subsidiary alone there are reports of 15 businesses having closed.
"They are not only due to extortion, but also of theft to shops and trucks, making things difficult for businessmen, who prefer to shut up shop" he said.
70% of Salvadoran SMEs are victims of crimes of extortion, which are only reported in a small percentage of cases, for fear of reprisals.
The Attorney General of the Republic of El Salvador has proposed advising and protecting small and micro entrepreneurs who denounce the atrocities of which they are victims.
The information was confirmed by Ernesto Vilanova, president of the National Council of Small Businesses in El Salvador (CONAPES), following a meeting they had with the Attorney General Luis Martinez in which they discussed the problem, which is experienced nationwide.
A study by the union of micro and small businesses reveals that 70% of them are victims of extortion, of which 65% do not file any complaints for fear of retaliation.
The study which included the participation of over 425 representatives of MSE's was conducted jointly by the National Council of Small Business in El Salvador (CONAPES) the MiyPEs Union and the Society of Businessmen and Industrialists of El Salvador (SCIS).
One of the reasons for the poor performance of the Salvadoran economy is the uncertainty about political behavior at every election.
This was stated by Director of Economic and Social Affairs of the National Association of Private Enterprise (ANEP), Waldo Jimenez, who added that "... as time has gone on the Salvadoran economy has grown less, and what that means for citizens is that the country has less and less capacity to generate wealth ... ".
An ECLAC study has revealed that companies in Guatemala and El Salvador pay the highest costs because of organized crime in Latin America.
According to data from the Global Competitiveness Index 2012-13, analyzed by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), in its report on safety in the logistics sector in the region, Guatemala has a score of 1.86, on a scale of 1 to 7, regarding the influence of crime and violence in operating costs of enterprises, where 1 is "very much" and 7 means "nothing".
The phenomenon affects much of Latin America, whose countries spend on average 8% of their GDP on security costs.
That was the conclusion reached during the forum "Connecting businesses as partners for prosperity with security in the Americas", organized by the Organization of American States (OAS) and the private sector, under the framework of the Guatemala Investment Summit.
A survey of Salvadoran entrepreneurs reveals that during 2012, 66% of their companies or their staff were affected up to twice by extortion, kidnapping and murder.
The Survey ENADE 2013 assesses businesses' perception of the performance of government officials, in public safety, fiscal policy and democratic institutions.
• Type of research: a quantitative descriptive research using the technique of self-administered questionnaire.
Lack of policies for attracting investment and the climate of insecurity both legally and for citizens is scaring away local and foreign investors.
In terms of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), this barely grew, by $22 million, during 2012, closing with $463 million while the previous year it had been $441 million.
"A recent report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) specifies that the balance of private foreign investment at the end of last year was $516 million, while in 2011 was only $385," reported Elsalvador.com. Although it was $130 million (34%) more than the amount of investment in the previous year, El Salvador was placed, for the fourth consecutive year, among the countries with the lowest FDI inflows in Central America.
The Government will be seeking support from the private sector in order to create an antiextorsion model in order to initiate an attack against those who commit this crime.
"We will have a meeting with them in order to examine the possibility of forming an antiextorsion board. We are looking not only for economic contributions, but collaboration for us to pave the way and create more confidence with entrepreneurs who experience extortion so that they will denounce it" said David Munguia, Minister of Justice and Security.