Mauricio Funes , El Salvador ’s president-elect, is in Paris attending the trial of his son’s alleged killer. At the trial, Funes paid an emotional tribute to the deceased Alejandro, who was murdered in October, 2007 at the age of 27, saying “we shared the same ideals, the same life projects and the desire to transform El Salvador , to convert it into a just society that would put an end to violence.” The motive of the alleged killer, Mohammed Amor, is unclear.

The murder is a tragic irony for the Funes family, which preferred the relative calm of Paris to violence-plagued El Salvador for Alejandro’s education. “We thought he would be safer,” said Funes. “I would never have imagined that he would be beaten to death here.”

Funes ran in El Salvador’s March 15, 2009, election as the candidate for the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN), a former guerrilla organization that transformed itself into a socialist political party after its demobilization. He won the presidency in part due to his pledge to cut crime and increase security. He will be inaugurated on June 1.

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