Salvador Rebels to Halt Fighting for OAS Talks

Salvadoran guerrilla commanders announced Friday that their forces will suspend an intense military campaign for five days next week when the Organization of American States is scheduled to hold its general assembly meeting in San Salvador.

The leaders of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front said the unilateral cease-fire will be effective nationwide from 6 p.m. Sunday until 6 p.m. Friday.

The front, known by the Spanish initials FMLN, invited the Salvadoran government and armed forces “to respond to this gesture with a similar measure,” said Joaquin Villalobos, who is one of five commanders of the Farabundo Marti front and also its leading military strategist. The rebels will defend themselves if attacked, Villalobos said.

He and guerrilla commander Leonel Gonzalez spoke at a press conference in Mexico City following a meeting with Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Bernardo Sepulveda.

Two-Track Strategy

The leftist guerrillas have been pursuing a so-called two-track military and diplomatic strategy against the U.S.-backed Salvadoran government in recent weeks, stepping up the violence at home while their leaders, in suits and ties, tour Latin America to seek support for a negotiated settlement to the civil war, which has lasted nearly nine years.

Guerrilla attacks in San Salvador have intensified to such a degree that Secretary of State George P. Shultz considered canceling his appearance at the annual OAS foreign ministers’ meeting, which opens Monday. Currently, he is reportedly planning to attend for one day and leave the country before nightfall.

Security concerns surrounding the OAS meeting were heightened last weekend when a rocket was fired at the Sheraton Hotel, the planned site of the OAS sessions. The hotel is now surrounded by police, with troops combing the nearby ravines and slum areas. Armored cars cruise the streets, and military checkpoints are set up throughout the capital.

Gonzalez said he is uncertain whether the Sheraton attack was carried out by rebels from the Farabundo Marti front.

New Guerrilla Units

“We said that we were going to take the struggle to the cities, and new guerrilla units have risen in the principle cities of the country,” Gonzalez said. “But as far as the Sheraton is concerned, we do not have confirmation that those were our units. There is some confusion over the situation.”

A new guerrilla faction calling itself the Jose Manuel Arce unit has begun to carry out actions in the capital and claims to be independent of the Farabundo Marti front.

The front has, however, launched an urban military campaign despite a heavy military and police presence throughout the capital. In the last two weeks, they have mounted mortar attacks on the National Guard headquarters downtown and the offices of the U.S. Agency for International Development, exploded car bombs and also set off bombs at two bordellos and the homes of two senior government ministers.

On Friday, rebels and government troops battled on the outskirts of the capital.

The guerrillas have also intensified military attacks and sabotage in the countryside and kidnaped and executed four town mayors since September--a tactic they had abandoned in 1986.

The guerrillas had threatened to disrupt the OAS meeting, but the two rebel spokesmen said Friday that the tour throughout Latin America convinced them that the diplomatic sessions would address the issue of the war and would serve as more than just a tribute to their enemy, Salvadoran President Jose Napoleon Duarte, who has terminal cancer.

Reading from a prepared statement, Villalobos said, “The FMLN asks all of the governments participating in the meeting to use their influence to stop the repression and human rights violations in El Salvador, put an end to U.S. intervention in the conflict and to pursue a solution among Salvadorans that will end the causes of the war and take into account the existence of the FMLN as a political and military power.”

The rebels have called for private negotiations with the government, which the new army chief of staff has rejected.