Duarte Backed on Talking to Rebels on Daughter

The Salvadoran armed forces, opposition parties and other groups have given President Jose Napoleon Duarte their “total support” for negotiating with leftist guerrillas for the release of his kidnaped daughter, a government spokesman said Wednesday.

The support is considered significant, for in the past, powerful military and political leaders have opposed making any concessions to the guerrillas. The kidnapers are demanding the release of 34 political prisoners in exchange for Duarte’s daughter, Ines Guadalupe Duarte Duran, 35, and a companion. They were abducted Sept. 10.

Duarte met Monday and Tuesday with leaders of several organizations--the armed forces, political parties, labor unions and businessmen’s groups--to ask for their support in the negotiations.

‘Total Solidarity’

“There was absolute and total solidarity and total support for whatever decision the government may take,” Communications Minister Julio Rey Prendes told reporters Wednesday. “Not only the armed forces but all sectors have expressed their solidarity and support.”

The support, he said, was given with the understanding that “the government is not going to do anything that would jeopardize national security. . . . They haven’t given him a blank check.”

Rey Prendes said there is no truth to reports that the guerrillas had set a Wednesday deadline for releasing the 34 political prisoners. “There is no ultimatum so far,” he said.

The kidnapers did tell President Duarte by radio that they wanted a response Wednesday to their demand, other sources said. These sources, who asked not to be identified, said the government planned to tell the guerrillas that about a dozen of the 34 people on the guerrilla list of prisoners were not in official custody.

Up to the Guerrillas

It would then be up to the guerrillas to take the next step, the sources said.

There was no confirmation that radio contact was made with the guerrillas Wednesday as planned. The government has refused to discuss the negotiations.

“Any information we give can endanger the status of the negotiations,” Rey Prendes said.

In earlier negotiations for the release of more than a dozen town mayors kidnaped by guerrillas earlier this year, the guerrillas demanded that the government account for nine rebels said to have disappeared after being captured or arrested.

Rey Prendes said Wednesday that when the government told the guerrillas, in August, that only four of the nine were in official custody, the guerrillas dropped the negotiations.

“They expressed no desire to exchange them,” he said.

In the last week, guerrillas have abducted eight more mayors, raising to more than 20 the number they hold.

Outside Help Requested

Rey Prendes said El Salvador has asked international organizations, foreign political leaders and some governments to help bring about the release of Duarte’s daughter and her companion.

Asked if the Cuban and Nicaraguan governments have been asked to intercede with the rebels, he smiled and said, “That’s a good idea.”

Cuba and Nicaragua have close relations with the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, the Salvadoran guerrilla confederation.

The kidnapers of Duarte’s daughter call themselves the Pedro Pablo Castillo commandos and say they are a part of the Farabundo Marti front, but the front has not claimed responsibility for the abduction.

Some informed analysts say the Castillo commandos are a special “SWAT team” created by the front’s high command specifically for the kidnaping.