Duarte Calls for New Talks With Rebels

President Jose Napoleon Duarte, facing growing disenchantment from workers and peasants, called Sunday for the renewal of peace talks with leftist guerrillas fighting to overthrow his U.S.-backed government.

In a concession to the rebels, Duarte said the meeting could be held inside this country in late July or August, but he made it clear that he wants to discuss their putting down arms and joining electoral politics.

Duarte’s government and the guerrillas met twice in late 1984 but since then have been unable to agree on conditions for a third meeting.

“If this is a real offer for a third meeting, then we will respond positively,” Guillermo Ungo, president of the Revolutionary Democratic Front, said by telephone from his exile home in Panama. “If it is a dialogue to discuss our surrender, then it seems to us it is not very serious.” He said that before making a decision, the rebels want to see the terms that Duarte is proposing for the dialogue.

Duarte made the surprise announcement at the end of a two-hour, state-of-the-nation speech to the National Assembly, marking the second anniversary of his presidency. He asked Msgr. Arturo Rivera y Damas, Roman Catholic archbishop of San Salvador, to make arrangements for a meeting with the guerrillas.

“I want to end the war,” Duarte said. “I make this new invitation expressing the sentiment and the will of the people who want those in arms to incorporate into the democratic process--to put down their arms and end this war that has caused our country so much pain and blood.”

Increasing Protests

Unionized workers and farmers have been been turning out in increasing numbers this year for street demonstrations protesting Duarte’s economic austerity program and calling for dialogue with the guerrillas.

In January, Duarte implemented an unpopular economic austerity plan supported by the United States that included a currency devaluation, limits on imports and price controls on some basic goods. But the package also included a 50% gasoline price boost and led to many other price increases.

A recent government poll showed that only 24% of those surveyed supported Duarte’s Christian Democratic administration.

Duarte outlined the achievements of his first two years in office, including construction of housing and bridges and increases in public and private employment. But economists say about half of the work force is still unemployed or laboring in marginal jobs.

U.S. officials say they believe Duarte has regained some of the public support he lost over his handling last fall of the kidnaping of his daughter by the guerrillas. She was released in an exchange for some imprisoned guerrillas and for safe conduct out of the country for other rebels after 44 days of negotiations that brought the government to a virtual standstill.

Yet critics still call Duarte’s administration a “non-government,” and members of his own party admit he is losing his political base among the peasant and working classes that elected him.

Far rightist opposition legislators boycotted Duarte’s speech at the Legislative Palace, leaving their seats empty and saying later that Duarte’s government is not a democracy but a party dictatorship.

Duarte, clearly irked by this attempt to embarrass him, lashed back, comparing the absent legislators to leftist guerrillas.