Rebel Leaders Invited to Forum May Face Jail, El Salvador Says

Government officials Friday threatened leftist rebel political leaders with arrest if they try to enter El Salvador to attend a university-sponsored peace forum.

The forum is scheduled for Feb. 28, and the National University has invited leaders of government, private enterprise, unions and the rebels to take part in a debate on how to end the seven-year guerrilla war.

Guillermo Ungo, leader of the Revolutionary Democratic Front, the political arm of the guerrilla alliance, said he would attend if he is allowed into the country. He lives in exile in Panama.

“Any Salvadoran can enter the country, but if the people who come have judicial charges facing them, they must respond to them,” Vice President Rodolfo Castillo Claramont said in an interview with a radio station.

‘Terrorist Acts’

He said the Democratic Front works with the armed branch of the rebels and therefore is responsible for “terrorist acts,” such as killing civilians.

“A performance of that type brings legal consequences, and Dr. Ungo has to answer to justice,” the vice president said. “If he decides to come, he runs the risk of being arrested.”

Luis Argueta Antillon, rector of the National University, confirmed that Ungo had accepted the invitation to participate.

The Democratic Front is a small organization of leftist politicians and trade union leaders allied with the armed, Marxist-led Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, which is trying to overthrow the U.S.-backed government of President Jose Napoleon Duarte.

Ungo was once a close friend of Duarte’s and was Duarte’s vice presidential running mate in the elections of 1972. Duarte won the elections, but the army prevented him from taking office.

Another Warning

Julio Rey Prendes, minister of communications and close adviser to Duarte, told a television station that any rebel leaders who enter the country would be arrested, in accordance with the law.

The government has refused to let members of the Democratic Front enter the country, except to attend two rounds of peace talks in El Salvador in late 1984.

The talks produced little and the government has tried to get members of the front to break their alliance with the guerrilla organization and return to this country to form a political party.

Ungo has resisted these efforts, although the rebel alliance is badly strained by differences over ideology and strategy.