Salvadoran Exchange Ends 44-Day Government Crisis

The complex, daylong prisoner exchange operation that freed President Jose Napoleon Duarte’s kidnaped daughter and affected more than a hundred guerrillas was completed without any major snags, officials said Friday, although there was confusion about whether the rebels surrendered all the small-town officials they have abducted.

In any case, the return of Ines Guadalupe Duarte Duran, 35, the president’s eldest daughter, and her friend, Ana Cecilia Villeda, 23, brought an end to the 44-day crisis for the U.S.-backed government.

Duarte, who was seldom seen publicly during the ordeal, has resumed his normal schedule. He opened a new government warehouse hours after his daughter was released and appeared Friday before the Legislative Assembly to ask permission to leave the country for a trip to the United States and Europe.

Duarte canceled a scheduled trip to the United Nations during the negotiations for his daughter’s release.

Nationwide Cease-Fire

The two women were kidnaped from a university here Sept. 10 by elements of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. On Thursday, during a nationwide cease-fire in the 5 1/2-year civil war, the government released 22 political prisoners from jails and gave 101 wounded guerrillas safe passage out of the country to Panama and Mexico.

The guerrillas, in turn, released Duarte Duran, Villeda, and 23 mayors and municipal officials who had been kidnaped since April.

A Roman Catholic Church source who was close to the negotiations said he believes that the agreement and exchanges were successful.

“It was a solution, within the possibilities, that was good for both sides and good for the country,” the source said, indicating that he believed it would stem a further escalation of violence.

An army spokesman, Lt. Col. Carlos Aviles, said the guerrillas failed to turn over nine municipal officials, who are still missing, but there has been much confusion over the number of kidnaped officials.

Originally, the government said that 23 mayors and three municipal employees had been kidnaped. Later, officials put the number of abducted municipal employees at 10, and on Thursday, they said the total number of mayors and employees was 38.

‘The Other Nine’

On Friday, Aviles said that 32 mayors and employees had been kidnaped and that only 23 were returned.

“We are convinced that the other nine are in the hands of guerrillas,” Aviles said.

In his address to the legislature, Duarte thanked assemblymen for their support during negotiations that led “to the freedom of my daughter, Ana Cecilia and 23 municipal representatives,” making no mention of missing officials.

Government officials said that Duarte will travel to Washington Oct. 31 to address the National Press Club.

Aviles said that both the army and the guerrillas respected Thursday’s daylong cease-fire and that there were no major problems during the complicated series of exchanges that took place throughout the capital and several interior cities.

“As far as the planning goes, everything went well. There was no obstacle or incident,” Aviles said.

Broadcasting on their clandestine radio station, the guerrillas charged Friday that the government violated the cease-fire accord by moving troops in at least two provinces. The rebels also declared that the kidnaping and exchanges were “a total success” from the guerrillas point of view.

The government had agreed to allow 96 wounded rebels to leave the country, but Aviles said that 101 actually left. The wounded rebels were flown to Panama and Mexico, and those who landed in Panama continued on to Cuba for medical treatment.

Four of the political prisoners also were flown out of the country. The other 18 were turned over to guerrillas in the deserted town of Tenancingo, 20 miles northeast of here, and from there they were presumed to have returned to the mountains to resume fighting.