Rebels to Free Duarte’s Daughter, 34 Others : El Salvador Agrees to Exchange Including 22 Political Prisoners, 96 Wounded Guerrillas

The Salvadoran government Wednesday announced that it has reached an agreement with leftist guerrillas for the release of President Jose Napoleon Duarte’s kidnaped daughter.

Communications Minister Julio Rey Prendes told a press conference that the government will free 22 political prisoners and allow 96 wounded guerrillas to leave the country in exchange for the release of Ines Guadalupe Duarte Duran, her companion, Ana Cecilia Villeda, and 33 mayors and municipal officials kidnaped since last April.

Rey Prendes said the agreement was reached with two representatives of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front after three days of meetings in Panama that ended Tuesday. He said he and Abraham Rodriguez, a Christian Democratic Party leader and the godfather of Duarte Duran, had represented the president.

Archbishop Signs Accord

The accord was signed by Salvadoran Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas, who participated in the talks as an observer.

Rey Prendes declined to say when the exchanges will take place, noting that both sides have agreed that journalists will not be allowed to witness the releases. But he invited reporters to come to the presidential palace early this morning so they can be ferried to an unspecified place to watch the women’s reunion with Duarte and their families.

He said the two women will be the first released in the series of exchanges. But a government official cautioned: “There could still be problems. There are a lot of people involved.”

Duarte Duran, 35, and Villeda, 23, were abducted Sept. 10 as they arrived for classes at a private university in San Salvador. Duarte Duran’s driver was killed in the assault, and her bodyguard was wounded.

Duarte Duran, the divorced mother of three children, worked as a private secretary to her father during his presidential campaign and is general manager of Radio Libertad, a station that supports her father’s Christian Democratic government.

The widely condemned kidnaping has consumed the attention and energy of the president for the past month, triggering criticism from some of his own colleagues as well as from his political opponents that he has put his family before the country.

Shortly after the kidnaping, the government announced that the abductors had identified themselves as the previously unknown Pedro Pablo Castillo Command of the Farabundo Marti Front. The front itself did not acknowledge responsibility for Duarte Duran’s abduction until this week.

It is believed that members of the Armed Liberation Forces, one of the five groups that makes up the Farabundo Marti alliance, carried out the kidnaping.

The front has been fighting the Salvadoran government for the last five years.

The abductors initially demanded, by radio, direct negotiations with Duarte. The rebels later settled for negotiations between Farabundo Marti commanders and church leaders, then agreed to the meeting in Panama with government representatives.

Seizure of Mayors

The guerrillas began kidnaping small-town mayors last April, claiming they had no right to govern in rebel-controlled areas. For the mayors’ release, they initially demanded information on the whereabouts of missing guerrilla leaders and got nowhere with the government.

When Duarte Duran and Villeda were kidnaped, the abductors called for the release of 34 political prisoners, including some of the missing rebels who had figured in their first request.

The government said only 25 prisoners were in custody. The rebels insisted the other nine also had been detained by security forces, who, they claim, torture and kill political prisoners.

While negotiating for the two women, the government demanded that the kidnaped mayors and municipal officials be included in the deal, but the rebels initially refused.

Last week, Archbishop Rivera y Damas and other church leaders said after a meeting with rebel commanders in guerrilla-controlled areas north of the capital that they believed the two women would be released by the weekend in exchange for the political prisoners, and that the mayors would be discussed later in a separate negotiation.

Church and government sources said the guerrillas then changed their minds and decided that they wanted all of the exchanges handled in a single package.

Rey Prendes said the two sides started from scratch in Panama and arrived at the agreement.

“The agreement on one side is to exchange Ines Guadalupe (and Villeda) and 33 members of municipal councils, and on the other side, our side, to release 21 political prisoners in jail to the FMLN. As a humanitarian act, the government will permit the crippled people in the mountains to be evacuated,” Rey Prendes said.

Cease-Fire Planned

A government source who asked not to be identified said Salvadoran military commanders have agreed to allow the evacuation of the 96 wounded rebels from makeshift front hospitals in guerrilla-controlled areas. He said a cease-fire will be declared during the evacuations.

The government already has released three of the 25 political prisoners in its custody. Rey Prendes said officials will release 21 others to the Farabundo Marti front and the 22nd, a Costa Rican pilot, to the Costa Rican government.

During the negotiations, the Legislative Assembly granted amnesty to the Costa Rican pilot, Julio Romero Talavera.

Rey Prendes said the International Red Cross will evacuate the wounded guerrillas from several areas of the country. He declined to say where the rebels would be flown, but sources said they believe that the wounded and political prisoners will go to Mexico and Panama.

The Panama government provided the two sides with a meeting place and has offered a plane to evacuate the prisoners and war wounded.

Help From Germany

A West German diplomat, Hans Juergen Wischnewski, vice president of the Socialist International, also intervened during the weeks of negotiations by carrying proposals from Farabundo Marti leaders in Nicaragua to Salvadoran government officials.

Rey Prendes declined to say with whom he met in Panama. Sources close to the negotiations said the Farabundo Marti Front was represented by Salvador Samayoa, a leader of the Popular Liberation Forces, one of the two largest groups in the front, and by Mario Aguinada, of the Armed Liberation Forces.

The Armed Liberation Forces is the armed wing of the Communist Party. One of the Communist Party’s top leaders, Americo Mauro Araujo, is among the 22 political prisoners to be released.

Rey Prendes said the two sides also arrived at “some private agreements relating to this case and to the humanization of the war” in Panama, but he would not give details.

Ignacio Ellacuria, rector of the Catholic University of Central America, sat in on the talks, along with the archbishop.