Rebel Leaders Plan to Return to El Salvador, Renew Peace Talks

Exiled leftist guerrilla leaders Friday said they will return to El Salvador next week to try to revive peace talks with the U.S.-backed government.

The leaders plan to enter the country under the protection of Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas, the primate of El Salvador, who mediated the first two rounds of government-rebel talks in late 1984, the rebels’ high command said in a statement read over their clandestine Radio Venceremos.

“Although (President Jose Napoleon) Duarte has said the conditions did not exist for dialogue, and now says the contrary, we have maintained a consistent position that we are willing to reinitiate dialogue immediately,” the radio said.

“Consequently, a delegation of our fronts will go to San Salvador next week with the intermediary of the dialogue, Msgr. Arturo Rivera y Damas, to arrange the practical and necessary aspects of the third meeting.”

Government Noncommittal

Presidential spokesman Gerardo Lechevalier said he had not heard of the proposal and did not know if the government would allow such a delegation to enter El Salvador.

In the past, the government has denied permission for insurgents to enter the country and threatened to arrest them if they tried. Rivera y Damas said the rebels had called his office Thursday night, but he was not in.

“I know they talked to my office last night and said they were coming next week,” the archbishop said. “But aside from that small report, I have heard nothing.”

Asked if he would be willing to help the rebel leaders enter the country, Rivera y Damas said, “Whatever contributes to peace we are willing to do, but we believe it is up to the government to decide.”

Duarte Conditional Offer

Earlier this week, Duarte said he would resume talks with the rebels if Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista government would begin simultaneous talks with U.S.-backed rebels in that country.

Salvadoran rebels rejected the plan, saying it is illogical to link the two sets of talks. The plan was also rejected by the Nicaraguan government.

Salvadoran rebel spokesman Hector Oqueli, reached Friday at his home in Mexico, said he could not comment on whether the safety of the rebel delegation had been guaranteed but said that if Duarte were serious about dialogue, there would be no problem.

He refused to divulge the names of the returning leaders or say what day they would attempt to enter the country.

The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, the umbrella organization for five guerrilla bands, has been fighting to overthrow the U.S.-backed government for six years. Most of the leaders of its political arm, the Democratic Revolutionary Front, are living in exile.