President Antonio Saca

Salvadoran police arrested a man suspected of involvement in the murder a day earlier of a high-profile Franco-Spanish journalist who had been investigating violent drug gangs. Christian Poveda, 54, was found dead near his vehicle on a road north of the capital San Salvador on Wednesday. An autopsy later confirmed he had been shot in the face four times, police and doctors said. Poveda was killed just weeks before the release of his latest documentary on violent drug gangs that blight the country. He had been filming in La Campanera, a suburb of El Salvador's capital where gangs known as "maras" pervade. Investigators said ... Read Full Story

Four alleged gang members and a police officer have been arrested in the slaying of French documentary filmmaker Christian Poveda, Salvadoran authorities said Wednesday. Howard Cotto, subdirector of investigations for the national police, identified the arrested officer as Jose Napoleon Espinoza, an agent assigned to the 911 emergency phone system in Soyapango outside the capital, San Salvador. Espinoza allegedly collaborated with gang members, living in an area controlled by El Salvador's brutal "Maras" and receiving money from extortion schemes, Cotto told reporters. Poveda, a French citizen with Spanish parents, was found shot to death in a car outside the capital Sept. 3. He had ... Read Full Story

A Franco-Spanish journalist has been assassinated in El Salvador just weeks before the release of his latest documentary on violent gangs that run drug and extortion rackets in this Central American country. Christian Poveda, 54, was found shot to death Wednesday near his vehicle on a road north of San Salvador, a National Civil Police spokesman told AFP. He had been filming in La Campanera, a suburb controlled by drug gangs known as "maras," before his death. Investigators said it is not clear whether he was the victim of a robbery or whether he had been killed by some of the very gang members ... Read Full Story

A French filmmaker who recently made a documentary about the lives of members of El Salvador's street gangs was shot dead Wednesday in the Central American country, authorities said. The body of Christian Poveda, 52, was found inside a car in a Tonacatepeque, a rural region north of the capital, police said. He had been shot in the head. President Mauricio Funes said he was "devastated" by the journalist's killing. Salvadoran Public Safety Minister Manuel Melgar deplored the "repugnant and reproachable criminal act" and vowed police would work tirelessly to find Poveda's killers. Earlier this year, Poveda, who lived in El Salvador, made the ... Read Full Story

A French filmmaker who made a documentary about gangs in El Salvador has been shot dead on a road near the capital, police said. The body of Christian Poveda, 54, was found on Wednesday in El Rosario county along with documents he was carrying close to his vehicle, a National Civil Police spokesman told AFP. President Mauricio Funes said he was "dismayed" by the photographer and journalist's killing, which he "strongly condemned." The Central American leader called on authorities to "conduct all necessary investigations so that those responsible are brought to justice". He called on the country to unite to "combat together" the scourge ... Read Full Story