San Salvador, El Salvador – Salvadoran authorities described as “terrorism” the shooting deaths of two police officers here Wednesday during protests against a hike in bus fares.
Interior Minister Rene Figueroa told a press conference that the officers – one of whom was shot in the head – were killed by rounds fired from AK-47 assault rifles.
“We want to express our condolences to the families of the two officers who were killed with heavy-caliber arms that are exclusively for use by the armed forces,” he said, adding that 10 other police officers were wounded in the violence that erupted outside the state-supported University of El Salvador in this capital.
For his part, rightist Salvadoran President Tony Saca characterized the shootings as a “blow to democracy, to public order and to the (country’s) institutions.”
He blamed the violence, footage of which was broadcast by local television, on groups with links to the leftist FMLN, the main opposition party.
National Police Director Rodrigo Avila, who said the demonstrators also fired at a police helicopter that flew over the area, denied accusations by UES officials that shots were fired in the direction of the campus from the aircraft.
Authorities likewise refuted allegations that the police on the ground fired at the inside of the campus, where the demonstrators had holed themselves up. UES officials said one professor had been shot in the chest inside the building that houses the rector’s office.
Witnesses told EFE that university and high-school students were protesting outside the UES until being dispersed by police and forced to take refuge within the university’s grounds.
According to police, the demonstrators damaged telephone booths and other private property and were dispersed with tear gas and rubber bullets. Police have arrested at least a score of demonstrators, although they have not yet determined the assailant or assailants who fired the deadly shots.
Authorities thus far have said they will not enter the university grounds, although police SWAT teams were installed just outside campus.
Grassroots organizations staged protests in different parts of San Salvador to protest a 5-cent increase in bus fares and a 14 percent hike in electric rates, both authorized by the government.
