Mayor of Salvadoran Town Shot by Unknown Suspects

The mayor of the eastern Salvadoran town of Alegría was shot and killed Wednesday by unknown assailants while riding in a vehicle in the company of a municipal employee.

Wilber Moisés Funes, 33, took office in May 2006 and was a member of the leftist FMLN, El Salvador’s main opposition party.

A spokesman for the FMLN, national lawmaker Sigfrido Reyes, told the news agency EFE that Funes was traveling early Wednesday in an official vehicle along with municipal employee Zulma Rivera when unknown assailants intercepted them and opened fire.

A source at Alegría’s town hall told EFE that Funes and Rivera, who was in charge of contracts and purchasing, were heading to a site to supervise the construction of a sports facility.

Reyes said the mayor was taken with serious injuries to the hospital in the nearby city of Santiago de María, where he succumbed to his wounds, while the woman died at the site of the attack.

The congressman said that Funes had received death threats since taking office and that his father had been the victim of another attack in April 2006.