Rightist Pressure May Torpedo Salvadoran Talks, Rebels Warn

Salvadoran rebel leaders warned Tuesday that peace talks with the government in El Salvador are in danger of breaking down because of political pressure on President Jose Napoleon Duarte from the army and the right-wing political opposition.

“The government is incapable of holding a dialogue with us at this time,” said Ruben Zamora, a political leader of the leftist Revolutionary Democratic Front, adding, “We think the entire process of dialogue is in danger of coming to a stop.”

The insurgents said they made a proposal through an intermediary on Jan. 11 to hold a third round of talks with the government soon. That, they said, has met with no response.

The suggested date for the talks, Zamora said, was sometime before the municipal elections scheduled for the middle of March.

“Given the political situation President Duarte finds himself in,” said Salvador Samayoa, a political leader of the Popular Liberation Forces, “we think it is difficult, although not impossible, for the next round to be held soon.”

Samayoa portrayed Duarte as “politically paralyzed” by the machinations of the National Assembly, controlled by the president’s right-wing political opponents. “Duarte has the government, but not the power,” Samayoa said.

The two insurgent politicians appeared with two other rebel leaders at a news conference in a Mexico City hotel.

With elections due soon, the rebels maintained, Duarte is in no position to stir up rightist opposition by holding another round of talks at this time.

President Duarte, leader of the Christian Democrats, announced at a U.N. General Assembly meeting in October that he was prepared to talk to the rebels to seek a peaceful solution to the five-year-old civil war that has claimed an estimated 50,000 lives.

Since then, two sessions of government-rebel talks have been held in the Salvadoran towns of La Palma and Ayagualo, raising hopes for a negotiated solution to the conflict. Now, however, the rebels say the talks seemed stalled.

Zamora and the others charge that the army was opposed to the talks and instructed Duarte not to discuss two fundamental elements of any ultimate peace plan, the possible fusion of government and rebel troops and giving the insurgents a role in the government.

Further, Zamora said, the rebels learned that the army had insisted that the talks could not be allowed to interfere with continuing military plans and operations.

“We believe that, in the end, a dialogue will come about because that is the only way to end the war,” Zamora said. “But we can’t say when, because it is not up to us but to the government. Meanwhile, people continue to die, and our country proceeds on the path to destruction.”