22 Facts About Mauricio Funes

Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena was a Salvadoran politician and journalist who served as the 79th president of El Salvador from 2009 to 2014.

Mauricio Funes received his high school diploma from the Externado San Jose, and studied at Universidad Centroamericana but did not graduate.

Mauricio Funes made appearances on Channel 12 and CNN en Espanol, where he worked as a correspondent from 1991 to 2007, and hosted local news programs which were critical of previous governments.

Mauricio Funes was a reporter during the Salvadoran Civil War and interviewed leftist rebel leaders.

Mauricio Funes was nominated to be the FMLN candidate on 28 September 2007 and competed in the 2009 presidential election against the Nationalist Republican Alliance's candidate Rodrigo Avila, a former deputy director of the National Police.

Mauricio Funes was the country's second left-leaning president, as well as the first FMLN party leader not to have fought in the Salvadoran civil war.

Mauricio Funes promised to improve programs such as health care in rural areas and crime prevention.

Mauricio Funes promised to keep the US dollar as El Salvador's official currency.

In November 2009, President Mauricio Funes had to face the natural disaster that greatly affected communities in Cuscatlan, San Salvador and San Vicente as a result of the rain brought by Hurricane Ida.

Mauricio Funes was criticized by the leader of the right-wing opposition, Armando Calderon, who said that "the State should never apologize".

Mauricio Funes was criticized for lack of a plan to fight El Salvador's increased crime.

Some advisers to the president were members of its board of directors, and allegedly Mauricio Funes himself had some participation through stock in that agency.

Mauricio Funes was not able to justify personal transactions of over $600,000.

The formal accusation against Mauricio Funes stated that he and his family increased their assets without justification for an amount of over US$728,000.

The income of the President of El Salvador in 2015, one year after Mauricio Funes left office, was US$5,181.72 per month.

On 29 May 2023, Mauricio Funes was sentenced in absentia to 14 years in prison because of negotiations related to the gang truces he made while in office.

Mauricio Funes's brother was killed by police during the Salvadoran Civil War.

Mauricio Funes was married to Vanda Pignato, who served as his first lady and as secretary of social inclusion in his cabinet.

In October 2014, Mauricio Funes publicly acknowledged that he and Pignato had separated.

In July 2019, Mauricio Funes became a naturalized citizen of Nicaragua, where he and his immediate family remained in exile beginning in 2016.

Mauricio Funes died following a "serious chronic illness" at a hospital in Managua, Nicaragua, on 21 January 2025, at the age of 65.

Mauricio Funes's family decided that he would be buried in Nicaragua.