Salvador Jails 3 in Killing of 4 U.S. Marines

President Jose Napoleon Duarte announced Tuesday that the government of El Salvador has arrested three of 11 guerrillas suspected of the June 19 massacre of 13 people, including four off-duty U.S. Marines, at an outdoor cafe here.

A fourth guerrilla died of bullet wounds at a hospital after the arrests of the other three, and seven others are still at large, Duarte said.

Duarte, accompanied by the Salvadoran military high command at a press conference, read a letter to President Reagan in which he said a U.S.-trained commission aided in the investigation leading to the arrests.

The panel, which is called the Special Investigations Commission and is under the attorney general’s office, received U.S. training in evidence-gathering, analysis and forensics.

The three suspects were identified as members of Central American Workers Revolutionary Party, the group that initially claimed responsibility for the killings. The group is one of the smaller factions of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, the umbrella organization for guerrillas fighting the Salvadoran government.

The suspects were identified as Juan Miguel Garcia Melendez, Jose Abraham Dimas Aguilar and Willian Celio Rivas Bolanos. All apparently are Salvadorans.

The circumstances surrounding their capture were not released, and no questions were allowed at the press conference.

Col. Aristides Montes, head of El Salvador’s national guard, said afterward that the three were arrested between six and 15 days ago and that their cases have been presented to a military tribunal. He said that human rights groups have been notified of their arrests and that they have been visited by family members.

Gen. Adolfo Blandon, head of the Salvadoran joint chiefs of staff, said none of the suspects were captured in the operation referred to by Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, who said July 31 that Salvadoran troops had killed and captured “a number of people” responsible for the massacre. U.S. officials later said it was not known if any of the killers were among the casualties in the Salvadoran army raids.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Donald Hamilton said American officials “cooperated with the Salvadorans on their investigation. We’re confident they’ve got the right people, and we are, of course, pleased.”

At one point in the investigation, Washington offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the Zona Rosa gunman.

The June massacre occurred on a Wednesday night at outdoor cafes frequented by Marines in the fashionable Zona Rosa (Pink Zone), a section of nightclubs and restaurants in the capital. Besides the four U.S. Marines, two American businessmen, a Chilean and a Guatemalan were among the dead. The rest were Salvadoran civilians.

Three Squads Involved

Montes said the attack was carried out by 11 guerrillas divided into three squads responsible for planning, providing security and carrying out the actual attack.

On the night of the attack, he said, the guerrillas gathered at an automobile repair shop, where they were picked up. After being taken to the Zona Rosa, he said, the four guerrillas who were responsible for security split up to cover the Brazilian Embassy across the street and to watch for government security forces just north of the restaurant area.

Montes said four people made up the group responsible for the assassinations. One of those, Rivas Bolanos, was among those arrested, he said.

Montes said that as the group was leaving after the attack, they realized that one of their members was missing. He said Rivas Bolanos went back for the wounded guerrilla and as he was being taken away, he was caught in the crossfire and shot again by his own men.

Montes said this guerrilla, Jose Roberto Salazar Mendoza, was taken to a hospital, where he died.

Four of the other guerrillas who allegedly participated in the attack have been identified but not captured, Montes said. One of them, he said, was trained in Vietnam and another was trained in both Cuba and Vietnam.