Salvadoran president inflames tensions after attack killing two leftist activists

San Salvador, February 2 (RHC)-- In El Salvador, two activists were killed over the weekend and five others wounded after gunmen opened fire on a group of supporters of the leftist political party FMLN in the capital San Salvador. 

Gloria Rogel del Cid and Juan de Dioz Tejada were members of FMLN and survivors of the U.S.-backed war in El Salvador.  The group had been campaigning all day as El Salvador prepares to hold local and legislative elections at the end of the month. 

FMLN lawmakers and Salvadoran advocates blamed right-wing President Nayib Bukele for instigating political violence after Bukele insinuated the FMLN had planned the attack against its own people.

In a statement, the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador -- CISPES -- wrote: “It is heartbreaking and terrifying to see a return to this type of overt political violence in El Salvador, which had largely ended after the Peace Accords were signed in 1992, but it’s not necessarily a surprise.  Social movements and international solidarity organizations have been warning that behind the president’s discourse of hate is a Machiavellian strategy to legitimize violent state repression and the consolidation of power.”