Guatemala and Leftist Guerrillas Plan First Peace Talks in Madrid

The government and leftist rebels announced Friday that they will meet next week in Spain in the first peace talks ever held in 25 years of political violence here.

Julio Santos, a spokesman for President Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo, told reporters, “On Tuesday, a delegation from the government of Guatemala will be in Madrid for the conversations.”

Leftist rebels announced their position in a communique published in the newspaper El Grafico. It said they will meet with government officials next week to “search for peace” and that a cease-fire was agreed on for the duration of the talks.

The talks are part of a Central American peace plan signed by the presidents of Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica in Guatemala City on Aug. 7.

The plan also calls for peace talks to be held in Nicaragua and El Salvador. However, the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua refuses to talk directly with U.S.-supported contras, saying it will meet only with the Reagan Administration, which it holds responsible for the insurgency.

In El Salvador, the U.S.-supported government and leftist rebels are still trying to arrange cease-fire talks.

The rebel communique, from the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union, said the cease-fire, agreed to by both sides, was scheduled to begin at midnight Friday.

The communique said the Madrid meeting would begin Wednesday to “analyze proposals of both sides for the search for peace and the construction of democracy in Guatemala.”

Guerrillas have been fighting to overthrow the military or military-dominated governments in Guatemala for about 25 years.