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Fiscalía Asks TACA For
Information on Free Tickets Used
by President Pacheco
The accusations against
President Abel Pacheco receiving
unreported gifts and the
resignation of the President's
Chief Protocol officer on Monday
prompted the Fiscalía de Delitos
Económicos to open an
investigation (Prosecutor's
office for ecomonic crimes) into
the matter.
One of the first stops for the
Fiscales (prosecutors) was at
the airline TACA, which last
week made public that it
donated, in the normal course of
business, the airline tickets
used by the president Pacheco to
Miami and back for his personal
trip to Spain in December of
2004.
The airline made it clear that
it is a normal practice to give
free tickets to the government -
the Ministerio de la Presidencia
and Aviacion Civil - and that
the tickets used by the
President were not given to him
directly, but to the government.
On Tuesday, the Fiscalía General
de la República began collecting
information after having made a
direct request, in writing, to
the airline about furnishing
specific information referring
to the free tickets used by
president Pacheco.
However, reports from the
prosecutor's office say that
Mario Zamora, general manager
for the airline, made a personal
visit to the Fiscalía, to
explain to how exactly the
"tarjeta azul" works, which
provides free flights to
presidents of the Central
American nations it flies to and
from.
TACA airlines is based in El
Salvador. Developing a strategic
alliance with the flag airlines
of Guatemala (AVIATECA), Costa
Rica (LACSA), and Nicaragua (NICA),
in the early 90's TACA
consolidated operations under
the name of GRUPO TACA, thereby
transforming the company into
one of the most efficient
transportation systems in Latin
America.
Currently, with a record of 92%
on-time arrivals, TACA serves 34
cities in 19 countries on board
the newest fleet across the
three Americas, including 10
major cities in the United
States, Toronto in Canada,
Mexico City, all of the
countries of Central America,
and the most important business
and tourist destinations in
South America and the Caribbean.
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