May Be Exchanged for Duarte’s Kidnaped Daughter : For Salvador Prisoners, a Waiting Game

After three years of living among revolutionaries in the damp and smelly political section of Mariona penitentiary, Salvador Castro Olivares says he is not sure what life would be like on the outside.

Castro’s name is on a list of prisoners the guerrillas have demanded in exchange for President Jose Napoleon Duarte’s kidnaped daughter. But negotiations between the government and the guerrillas have dragged on for more than five weeks, and Castro says he is reluctant to dwell on his freedom or future.

“I am not out yet,” Castro told an interviewer.

In a fluorescent-lighted cell he has turned into an office, Castro carries out his duties as president of the Committee of Political Prisoners of El Salvador, the inmate group that runs the political section where about 550 men are lodged.

‘Not a Normal Situation’

“Like the majority of people here, I would like to return to a normal life with my family, and to look for work, but that is not possible,” he said. “There is not a normal situation of confidence. There is instability and a lack of security.”

President Duarte’s daughter, Ines Guadalupe Duarte Duran, and a friend were abducted Sept. 10 by guerrillas of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, an alliance of five leftist groups battling the U.S.-backed Duarte government. The rebels said they kidnaped the president’s daughter to draw attention to political prisoners, who, they believe, are beaten, tortured and sometimes killed.

Most of those in the political section of the penitentiary are there because they are awaiting trial or have been convicted of subversive activities. The political prisoners insist, however, that only a minority of them belonged to the Farabundo Marti front or took part in its operations.

The others, they say, are union and student activists, relatives of Farabundo Marti combatants, and civilians from guerrilla-held zones who are not involved in the war. Castro said that most of the political prisoners, like himself, do not know precisely what they have been convicted of, or how long a sentence they must serve.

Although the abduction of Duarte Duran has been condemned abroad, some of those expected to be freed because of it say the kidnaping was a justifiable act of war.

Americo Mauro Araujo, a leader of the Salvadoran Communist Party, said the kidnaping was “illegal but legitimate.”

“We have seen 50 years of violations of moral norms and ethics here,” Araujo said. “This is not an isolated act but part of a war.”

Araujo’s capture, on Aug. 9, may have been a major reason for the kidnaping of Duarte Duran a month later. His name is high on a list of 34 prisoners whose release is being demanded in exchange for Duarte Duran. The Armed Liberation Forces, the military wing of the Communist Party, is believed to have carried out the kidnaping.

9 Among the ‘Disappeared’

Nine of the people on the guerrillas’ list are believed to be among the “disappeared,” a term that has come to be associated with people taken from their homes or off the streets, often tortured and then killed. The guerrillas say the nine were arrested by the authorities, but the government says it has never had them in custody.

The government has already released three of the prisoners demanded by the guerrillas and has agreed to free others from Mariona and the women’s prison, Ilopango.

Cesar Valle, a bearded former priest who provided health care to civilians in guerrilla-controlled zones, is one of those expected to be released. He said the kidnaping was “valuable because it awakened a concern for political prisoners.”

Last spring, the Farabundo Marti front declared its intention to infiltrate urban organizations and increase its activities in the cities. After the guerrillas killed 13 people June 19, including four U.S. Marines, and kidnaped the president’s daughter, the detention of suspected leftists increased.

Many of the political prisoners describe brutal physical and psychological torture during the 21 days they can legally be held by police before being sent to prison.

Araujo, 41, a slight man with tortoise shell glasses who wears an Abraham Lincoln beard and is known as Commandante Hugo, recounted in detail the psychological torture he says he was put through at National Police headquarters, including five days of sleep deprivation, interminable interrogation and humiliation.

The political prisoners say the “lucky ones” make it to Mariona, and view the jail as a safe haven.

At Mariona, the political prisoners are separated from the so-called common criminals, and few guards are seen inside the political section.

The gray walls are decorated with murals and pictures of the slain Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who has become a martyr of the Farabundo Marti struggle because he spoke out against political killings.

By carrying out hunger strikes, the political prisoners have won permission to cook in their cells, to run their own medical clinic, with prisoner doctors, and to keep the keys to their “library,” a windowless cell with a handful of books on a wooden shelf.

Castro says he will not even look up his family when he is released because they are afraid to have contact with him. He said he does not know what awaits him after prison. But wherever he goes, he said fervently, “I will continue to struggle for justice.”