Social Democrats Returning to El Salvador From Exile to Organize Against Duarte

Social democrats who went into exile six years ago and made an alliance with armed guerrillas are slowly sending some of their members back into the country to organize opposition to the government of President Jose Napoleon Duarte.

Some of them, grouped in the Revolutionary Democratic Front, say that as the war has drawn out, they have become concerned about losing their political base among students, union members and professional people. They say they want to fill a politiCal vacuum in the country.

Their return comes at a time when the guerrillas of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) have vowed to prolong the war and promised to step up their guerrilla activity in the capital and large provincial cities. This has led a number of diplomats to believe that the return of the social democrats could cause conflicts between the two groups.

Alliance Called Strong

But while the social democrats have had differences with their armed allies in the past year, particularly over the question of increasing urban military action, both insist that their alliance remains strong.

Jorge Villacorta, a social democratic leader and member of the political-diplomatic commission that represents the two rebel groups internationally, said: “Our return in no way means that we believe the armed struggle has lost its validity. The conditions that required armed force are still there.”

Government officials said they were not aware that any social democrats were returning. They said these people cannot move back into the country legally without first breaking their ties with the armed guerrillas--something the government would like to see.

‘Subject to Capture’

“If they continue to be linked to the FMLN and they are here, they are subject to being captured,” a presidential minister and key aide to Duarte, Julio Rey Prendes, told a reporter. “If they disassociate themselves, they would have all of the guarantees--at least all the ones I have, which aren’t many. You always have to be careful.”

Col. Carlos R. Lopez Nuila, the vice minister of defense, said flatly, “You’re either in the mountains or you’re here.”

The Revolutionary Democratic Front is made up of two political parties, both social democratic in outlook, as well as professional groups and trade union organizations. So far, only the Popular Social Christian Movement, which Villacorta represents, has made a decision to send people back into El Salvador.

The leadership of the Popular Social Christian Movement is made up of former members of Duarte’s Christian Democratic PaRty, many of whom resigned from the party and from government positions in 1980 to protest repression by the military and security forces. Most went into exile in Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua after their lives were threatened.

A Delicate Move

Ruben Zamora, the social democrats’ leader, said during a recent interview in Mexico that the move back into the country is very delicate and that, for security reasons, he does not want those who have returned to be identified. He said Duarte’s government had provided a slight democratic opening that allows them to try to operate more freely in El Salvador, but he insisted that El Salvador is still not a democracy.

“The regime continues to be repressive,” he said. “The political spaces are very fragile. The question is how to advance, knowing that the blow could come at any moment.”

He said the government was not consulted before party members returned because that would imply “asking permission.” Church leaders were notified, he said.

Zamora declined to specify how many activists have returned. He would say only that there are fewer than 50 activists in the country and that some of them are people who were already living in El Salvador who had been enlisted in the party.

A Western diplomat estimated that three or four of the seven-member executive committee of Zamora’s party “and many more lower-level people” are now in El Salvador.

Working in Country

Hector Oqueli, a leader of the other social democratic party, the National Revolutionary Movement, said members of all the front’s groups have had organizers in and out of the country throughout the six years the war has gone on. He declined to say whether his party would make a decision similar to Zamora’s to send people back to live and work in the country.

For the past few years, the social democrats have concentrated their efforts in the international arena, trying to win support throughout Latin America and in the United States and Western Europe.

Zamora said that as it became clear that the war would not end quickly, and as repression in the country was reduced “from indiscriminate to selective,” the social democrats realized that they would have to return to organize political support for the front.

“We have to put the internal political battle of the masses at the same level as the military battle,” he said.

Political Vacuum Seen

Leaders of the Revolutionary Democratic Front (FDR) said that Duarte’s election in 1984, and the hope that people put in him, drew support away from them, but that a political vacuum has developed since then because of Duarte’s weakened image and his program. The decision to return organizers was made last summer.

“The great challenge for the FDR-FMLN is to fill that vacuum,” Zamora said. “The question is how. The FDR-FMLN alone can’t do it.”

In the international arena, the Revolutionary Democratic Front has found its work more difficult in the last year. The opposition does not consider Duarte’s election legitimate--they say it was too dangerous for the left to take part--but abroad Duarte is recognized as a democratically elected president and is even being thought of as a sort of elder statesman in Central America.

France and Mexico, longtime supporters of the rebels, sent ambassadors to El Salvador last year for the first time since they were withdrawn in 1980-81, a move that lends further legitimacy to the Duarte government.

Rebel Tactics Disputed

Meanwhile, the social democrats are being called on by other countries to answer for the increasingly controversial tactics of the guerrillas. When the guerrillas kidnaped Duarte’s daughter last year, 36 countries condemned the action.

For a time, the Revolutionary Democratic Front said nothing about the kidnaping, which ended with the release of Ines Guadaloupe Duarte Duran and about two dozen kidnaped municipal officials in exchange for the release of 22 political prisoners and the evacuation of 101 wounded guerrillas.

Now the front’s leaders say that Duarte Duran was a legitimate target because of her work with her father’s presidential campaign and her management of Radio Libertad, a pro-Christian Democratic radio station.

“She’s part of the Ministry of Communications’ project,” Villacorta said.

Cafe Attack Criticized

Zamora’s party did criticize the guerrillas for killing nine civilians during attacks on outdoor cafes in the capital last June. The attacks were aimed at U.S. military personnel and four U.S. Marines were killed in addition to the civilians.

The social democrats agree with the guerrillas that U.S. military personnel here are legitimate targets, but they are quick to assail the armed forces every time they kill a civilian. They are careful, however, about criticizing the guerrillas when civilians are wounded or killed by rebel mines. And the rebels were apparently responsible for increasing numbers of civilian casualties in the past year.

The guerrillas insist that they take precautions to avoid civilian casualties, but as they increase their attacks in the densely populated capital, there will probably be more such casualties.

Social democrats and diplomatic sources close to them say the urban military activity caused long and sometimes angry internal debate last year, as did the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front’s use of forced recruitment early in the year, the burning of town halls, efforts to disrupt elections and the decision to step up activity in San Salvador.

Rebels Move for Unity

The Farabundo Marti Front, an alliance of five rebel armies, last year announced a new effort to unite as a single Marxist-Leninist party and army. The move, according to front sources, was meant to strengthen the group’s military and political ability to fight a long war. According to a diplomatic source, it led to concern among the social democrats about their role in the war.

But diplomatic observers say the debate, though it may have caused problems, falls far short of a rupture.

“There’s certainly no imminent clash between members of the alliance,” a Western diplomat said. “All they’re (the social democrats) doing is testing to see how much room there is to move. But if you look down the track, you must see tension developing, especially if you compare this to (guerrilla commander Joaquin) Villalobos’ statements about 20 years of prolonged war. There are inevitable contradictions. . . . If the FDR operates in El Salvador without trouble, obviously they are going to expand, and the obvious conclusion is a political party.”

The social democrats and the guerrillas say they still have a common goal of toppling the Duarte government, and for that they still need each other.