EL SALVADOR: PROTESTING FARMERS CLASH WITH POLICE

(28 Feb 2001) Spanish/Nat QUALITY AS INCOMING XFA Riot police in El Salvador fired tear gas to break up a demonstration on Tuesday night by 2-thousand farmers in the capital, San Salvador. The farmers were protesting against the failure of the government to distribute food following the two recent earthquakes which devastated their homes and lives. The police also cordoned off a main street in the northeastern part of the capital. The demonstrators were trying to get to the offices of President Francisco Flores' Committee for National Emergency (C-O-E-N). Oswaldo Guerrero, the leader of the Committee in Defence of the Victims, accused the government of stealing their food while people were dying of hunger. Most of the group came from La Libertad, one of the areas worst affected by the first earthquake on January 13. The second earthquake followed on February 13. Altogether, more than 12-hundred people died, 8-thousand were injured and over 330-thousand houses were destroyed or badly damaged. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) "He's just a child -- there is noone here --stop it, you bullies." SUPER CAPTION: Vox pop, protestor SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) "We aren't hitting anyone -- it's the rioters who are armed with knives, I can show you which ones." SUPERCAPTION: Riot Policeman SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) "We are sleeping without a roof over our heads. Robbers come and steal the only things we have left. Nobody wants to help us and then they hit us like this - it isn't right." SUPERCAPTION: Vox pop, protestor SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) "It becomes a problem when they break the law - then we have to do something about it." SUPERCAPTION: Policeman Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives ​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/fa3de9d1acfc1fe0d36115cb22533df4