(RNS) The Lutheran Church in El Salvador and officials at the Salvadoran Lutheran University contend a Jan. 29 robbery and brutal murder on their campus was an act of intimidation aimed at the church for being outspoken in politics.

The murder is believed to be an attempt to silence the Salvadoran Lutheran Church and the university, said Medardo Gomez, the Lutheran archbishop of El Salvador.

Hector Fernandez, Lutheran University president, said the murder of guard Manuel de Jesus Martinez, 46, who was tied up, blindfolded, gagged and hanged from a tree on the university's campus, reminded him of violence perpetrated by armed groups during El Salvador's 12-year-long civil war, which ended in 1992.