Mauricio Funes

(Newser) - A judge sentenced former El Salvador President Mauricio Funes to 14 years in prison Monday for negotiating with gangs during his administration. Funes’ trial began in April with the former leader living in Nicaragua. El Salvador changed its laws last year to allow trials in absentia. Prosecutors had accused Funes...

(Newser) - A former TV journalist representing a party founded by Marxist guerrillas has been sworn in as El Salvador's first leftist president. Mauricio Funes, who ran on a center-left, pro-America platform, called Barack Obama an inspiration in his inauguration speech and singled out Hillary Clinton, who attended the ceremony, as "...

(Newser) - A leftist television journalist has won El Salvador's presidential election, bringing a party of former guerrillas to power for the first time since the bloody civil war and ending 2 decades of conservative rule. Mauricio Funes, a moderate plucked from outside the ranks of the rebel-group-turned-political-party FMLN, became the latest...