Schafik Handal handed out a declaration of solidarity at the Venezuela embassy (2004)
Schafik Jorge Handal (Usulutan, 13/14 October 1930-San Salvador, January 24, 2006) was a Salvadoran politician and guerrilla leader. He was the son of Palestinian immigrants.
From 1959 to 1994 he was Secretary of the Communist Party of El Salvador. In the seventies and eighties, he was a guerrilla leader of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) against the right junta. When the civil war ended in 1992, the FMLN was transformed into a political party with Handal as coordinator. In 1997 he was elected at the National Assembly of El Salvador.
In 2004 he was a candidate for the presidential election. He called for strengthening ties with socialist-oriented countries in Latin America. According to opponents he was anti-American. Handal fighters accused US of falsifying the elections because the US had threatened to sanction El Salvador if Handal would win. Eventually he lost the elections to Antonio Saca.
On January 24, 2006, when he returned from the inauguration of Bolivian President Evo Morales, he became ill at San Salvador Airport. He was taken by helicopter to a nearby hospital where he died. It was found that his cause of death was a heart attack.
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