Salvadoran ex-president Saca released after 10-year sentence for corruption

Elias Antonio Saca confessed to diverting over $300m in public funds during his presidency and took a plea bargain.

Elias Antonio Saca, the former president of El Salvador, has been released after serving a 10-year prison term for corruption.

Saca, 61, arrived at court to formally report his release on Thursday after fulfilling the terms of a plea deal in which he confessed to diverting and laundering more than $300m from public funds during his 2004 to 2009 administration.

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His lawyer, Mario Machado, said the former president had served his sentence in full without receiving early-release benefits.

Saca stands next to his lawyer Mario Machado after being released in San Salvador, El Salvador, on October 29, 2026 [Jessica Orellana/Reuters]

Arrested at son’s wedding

Saca was first arrested during his son’s wedding in 2016 and was sentenced to five years for embezzlement and another five years for money laundering in September 2018.

A plea bargain allowed Saca to avoid a potential 30-year prison sentence.

In 2019, the former president was found guilty of offering $10,000 to a court employee to obtain information about a case against him, though a judge determined the second sentence to be part of his existing 10-year term.

Saca, a businessman and radio broadcaster, served as president as part of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA).

During the initial trial, prosecutors said Saca appropriated funds from the state budget for himself and others, including taking more than $7m for his former party.

Saca was also ordered to repay $260m to the state. He is one of four Salvadoran presidents who have faced corruption charges, including his successor Mauricio Funes, who escaped to Nicaragua in September 2016 and died there in 2025.