El Salvador's right wing has stepped up intimidation with the death squad murders of four FMLN members in one week.
On October 27, just two days after FMLN leader Francisco Veliz was shot while taking his toddler to a day care centre, two FMLN members and former combatants were murdered as they sat in their home in Guazapa. The couple were Justa Victoria Orellana Cortez and Medardo Brizuela Hernandez; Orellana was nursing her one-month-old infant when she was shot in the head.
On October 30, yet another FMLN leader was killed. Heleno Hernan Castro was driving alone from San Salvador to Usulutan to meet with campesino groups when he was forced off the road and shot twice in the head at close range and once in the chest.
United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali condemned the killings and demanded an in-depth investigation. On November 5, the UN Security Council asked Salvadoran authorities to take "all necessary measures" to see that the authors of the recent political murders are quickly "tried and punished".
In a communique released on October 31, the FMLN described the murders of two of its leaders as "attacks against the nation ... and the electoral process", and called on all sectors to "close ranks ... to isolate and definitively dismantle" the death squads. FMLN leader Joaquin Villalobos, speaking to mourners on October 31, warned that the recent murders "make us question the peace process" and justify the distrust which led the FMLN to secretly store weapons.
San Salvador radio and TV stations have received anonymous calls from people claiming to be urban commandos of the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP), threatening to attack military objectives and businesses belonging to the powerful Sol Bang, Duenas and Hill families, who they say are behind the death squads. The callers say they are acting without the approval of the FMLN leadership.
On the night of November 3, three unidentified men shot at another former guerilla leader, Jorge Gabriel Quintanilla, as he left his house in San Jorge. The 30-year old university professor and FMLN coordinator is in critical condition. [Nicaragua Solidarity Network/Pegasus.]