Funeral held for Salvadoran killed by Mexican police

A Salvadoran woman who died at the hands of Mexican police was buried Sunday in the southwest of El Salvador, in the presence of family and close friends.

The coffin of Victoria Salazar was driven in a white car from a funeral home in Sonsonate, 65 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of San Salvador, to a private cemetery in La Generosa, on the outskirts of the city.

“The family gave Victoria a Christian burial today, and close friends attended the funeral,” a spokesman for the presidential office, which helped Salazar’s family repatriate her body from Mexico, told AFP.

Salazar’s body was repatriated from Mexico on Saturday. Her mother and her two daughters, aged 15 and 16, accompanied the body. Her family has asked that her death not go unpunished.

The 36-year-old victim, who had lived in Mexico for five years, died on March 27 after being subdued by police officers in Tulum, a Caribbean resort.

The state prosecutor there said the police used “disproportionate force” against Salazar, which caused a fatal spine fracture.

On Saturday, the prosecutor’s office said that four police officers accused of being involved in Salazar’s death were formally charged after being arrested on the day of the event.

The judge in charge of the case determined the prosecution had presented sufficient evidence to “prove the probable participation of the four policemen in the crime of femicide” and remanded them into custody, according to a press release.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has called for those responsible to face justice.

The Archbishop of San Salvador, Jose Luis Escobar, lamented Salazar’s death during a press conference Sunday and urged the governments of El Salvador, Mexico and the United States to defend and respect “the rights of migrants.”