Duarte Warns Returning Leftists, Won’t Meet Them

President Jose Napoleon Duarte said Sunday that he will hold returning leftist politicians responsible for any military attacks by their guerrilla allies while they are in El Salvador.

Duarte also ruled out meeting with either of the two Revolutionary Democratic Front leaders, Ruben Zamora and Guillermo Ungo, and he repeated earlier threats to jail them if they continue to maintain ties with the guerrilla Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. Zamora arrived Saturday after seven years in exile, and Ungo is scheduled to arrive today.

In a surprise but related development, Duarte also announced that the government has found its first witness to the assassination almost eight years ago of Msgr. Oscar Arnulfo Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador, who was shot while celebrating Mass in a hospital chapel March 24, 1980.

Speaking before a national congress of his Christian Democratic Party, Duarte identified the witness as the driver of the automobile used by the assassins. Duarte said the witness’ testimony was submitted to a Salvadoran court two days ago, but he gave no other details.

Clearly timed to counter the political impact of the arrivals of Zamora and Ungo, Duarte’s announcement about the witness drew cheers and a standing ovation from his party’s delegates.

On his first day back in the country, Zamora also drew attention to the unsolved assassination by invoking the spirit of the prelate, who is believed to have been slain by a right-wing death squad because of his criticism of political violence. Zamora, a leader of the Social Christian Party, attended Mass at the downtown Metropolitan Cathedral where he laid flowers and knelt to pray at Romero’s tomb.

“All of these years outside the country, I thought one of the first things I would do when I returned would be to visit the tomb of Msgr. Romero,” Zamora said. “He illuminates us. We learn from his humility and from the anger he had for the oppressed (and) for those who had no voice.”

Zamora is vice president of the Revolutionary Democratic Front, known by its Spanish initials FDR, and he returned from exile Saturday to test the political climate resulting from the Central American peace plan signed by the region’s five presidents. As he did on his arrival, Zamora wore a bulletproof vest under his suit to church, and he was accompanied by a delegation of Americans attempting to provide protection.

Ungo is president of the FDR, and he is scheduled to be accompanied by a delegation of European Social Democrats when he arrives today.

Duarte’s ‘Headache’

Duarte told reporters Sunday that the possibility of an assassination attempt against Zamora or Ungo “is one of the biggest headaches I have.” He said the left rather than the far right may try to kill them in an attempt to create martyrs.

Guerrilla leaders of the Farabundo Marti Front, or FMLN, say they support the return of the political leaders. In honor of their arrival, the guerrillas declared a three-day unilateral cease-fire throughout the country and suspended military activities in the capital for a week.

Zamora and Ungo have discounted the possibility of a leftist attack against them.

The two men say they are political allies of the rebels but have never taken up arms. Despite government threats, they have refused to break their ties with the guerrillas or to accept a government amnesty offered the rebels, saying they have broken no laws and thus need no amnesty.

Duarte insisted at a news conference that the two leftist politicians cannot remain attached to an armed group and participate internally in the legal political system at the same time.

“The law is the limit,” Duarte said. “From the moment (Zamora and Ungo) say they remain connected to the FMLN, that they do not separate themselves from the system of violence, they are endangering the stability of the country.” If they do not make a clear and public break with the guerrillas, he said, “at some moment they must confront the law.”

Citizens Can Complain

Duarte did not say how or when the government might move against the two. He said that any citizen could file a law suit against Zamora or Ungo for any sabotage or crime committed by guerrillas while the political leaders are in the country.

Zamora and Ungo left El Salvador in 1980 amid widespread political killing by clandestine military and paramilitary death squads. Zamora’s brother, Mario, was shot to death that year, as were five leaders of the front. The FDR’s alliance with the guerrillas also began in 1980.

The return of Zamora and Ungo coincides with a recent upsurge in political violence, and diplomats have warned that the two returnees could be targeted by rightist extremists. Human rights activist Herbert Ernesto Anaya was slain Oct. 26.

Msgr. Arturo Rivera y Damas, the archbishop of San Salvador, has denounced other death squad-style violence in recent weeks.

Rivera y Damas, who replaced Romero as archbishop, said in his homily at the Metropolitan Cathedral that he hopes Zamora’s return will contribute to peace in the country. As Zamora listened from the congregation, Rivera y Damas also criticized the guerrillas for economic sabotage and accused them of forcing church members to do chores for them in the eastern province of San Miguel.

Earlier this year, five men who were taken off by the guerrillas to do similar chores were found dead at the bottom of a well. They were seen in the custody of soldiers after the rebels released them.

Archbishop Expects Fair Play

The archbishop told reporters that he believes Ungo and Zamora are returning “to play by the rules of the game.” He said that as they participate in internal politics, their alliance with the rebels “could lessen until it is dissolved.”

He said he wants the two men to work for a renewal of suspended cease-fire talks between the government and guerrillas, but Duarte said he will not meet with the two as long as they are allied to the rebels. The peace plan calls for dialogue, cease-fires and amnesty. The Salvadoran government this month implemented an amnesty law for guerrillas, pardoning all political crimes committed before Oct. 22.

The amnesty forgives the killing of thousands of students, union and church activists, Christian Democrats and human rights workers by death squads, but specifically omits the assassination of the archbishop in 1980.