San Salvador | Three suspects are being prosecuted in El Salvador for the murderous attack last Sunday in the midst of the electoral campaign against a caravan of militants from the Farabundo Martà Front for National Liberation (FMLN, ex-guerilla of the left), announced the general prosecutor’s office.
The attack, which left two dead and five injured, occurred in the center of San Salvador, less than a month before the legislative elections and a few days after Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele criticized the peace accords , signed in 1992, between the army and the FMLN to end the civil war.
The three suspects were employed at the Salvadoran health ministry, Attorney General Raul Melara told a press conference on Wednesday.
Diego Alvarado Peña, an agent of the ministry, Hector Castaneda, a driver, and Roberto Carlos Coto, a security guard, were charged with “aggravated homicide and attempted homicide”, he said. Only Mr. Alavardo Peña could not appear, being hospitalized after being wounded by bullets.
The two victims of the attack, FMLN activists, were found with their bodies riddled with bullets as they drove the campaign trailer for the February 28 poll.
“Whatever their political sympathy, it is two Salvadorans who died on Sunday and we should all be dismayed,” said the prosecutor, adding that the US federal police, the FBI, had offered to help “contribute” to the investigation.
After the violence, the Supreme Electoral Court of El Salvador asked the UN, the European Union (EU) and the Organization of American States (OAS) on Tuesday to send their observers earlier than scheduled for the poll.
Some 5.4 million Salvadorians are called to elect the 84 deputies of the unicameral congress and the 262 mayors of the country and their municipal councils.
A dozen parties are participating in this election, including the Nuevas Ideas (New Ideas, NI) party, led by President Bukele, in the polls.
The president had decided in mid-January to put an end to the commemorations of the peace agreements that ended the civil war that had ravaged El Salvador for 12 years, establishing in their place a day of victims.