Rebels See Leftist’s Murder as Warning : El Salvador: Guerrillas link the slaying of two comrades to a secret meeting with U.S. Sen. Dodd.

A secret meeting between U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and El Salvador’s leftist guerrillas in Guatemala City earlier this month may have provoked the murder of a Salvadoran socialist by an alleged right-wing death squad, according to the rebels and civilian leftists.

Dodd, a key liberal senator on Central American issues, met Jan. 10 at Guatemala City’s Aurora International Airport with Ana Guadalupe Martinez and Roberto Canas, representatives of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), to discuss prospects for ending El Salvador’s 10-year civil war, according to three sources.

Two days later, Hector Oqueli Colindres, a leader of a small Salvadoran leftist party, was abducted along with a Guatemalan politician as they headed for the same airport. They were shot to death and their bodies dumped along the road to the Guatemalan border with El Salvador.

“We think there is a direct link,” said Martinez, who confirmed the meeting took place. “We think it was the Salvadoran right (wing) operating with its network in Guatemala. . . . It was a warning from the right and the Salvadoran army that we were in their rear guard, in forbidden territory.”

Oqueli, 45, was deputy secretary general of the National Revolutionary Movement and a leader of the Socialist International in Latin America. His party is legal in El Salvador, and its secretary general, Guillermo Ungo, ran for president last year after returning from exile.

But Ungo, Oqueli and a handful of other returned politicians have never formally broken a political alliance they made with the Marxist-led FMLN guerrillas while in exile, and many rightists consider them to be rebel fronts. The politicians have been pushing for negotiations between the government and the guerrillas.

Dodd spokesman Jason Isaacson refused to confirm or deny the meeting in Guatemala, although he confirmed that Dodd visited Guatemala during a weeklong swing through Central America on Jan. 4-11. Isaacson said the senator had met several times with Oqueli, but not on that trip.

Three sources said Martinez and Canas arrived in Guatemala City to meet with Dodd on the morning of Jan. 10 and were received at the airport by a West European diplomat. At the airport, the rebels also ran into a prominent Salvadoran businessman who is a known extreme rightist.

The hourlong talks with Dodd took place in a private room at the airport, after which Dodd left the country and the rebels were taken to a West European embassy, sources said. Martinez confirmed reports that the embassy began receiving threatening telephone calls within two hours of her arrival. Embassy officials could not be reached for comment.

Martinez and Canas left Guatemala early Jan. 11; that day, Oqueli arrived from Mexico to stay overnight before catching a flight to Nicaragua.

On the morning of Jan. 12, Gilda Flores, a Guatemalan leftist, was driving Oqueli to the airport when they were abducted by armed men in civilian dress. Their bodies were discovered that night in Jalpatagua, 60 miles east of Guatemala City.

Oqueli’s colleague, Guillermo Ungo, said he has information that Oqueli had been detained by immigration officials at the Guatemalan airport the day he arrived and believed he was followed from the airport.

Some sources close to the rebels suggested the assailants may have been looking for Martinez. She declined to comment.

Other observers said the killing might have been retribution for the November slaying of right-wing politician Francisco Jose Guerrero.

Martinez admitted that FMLN guerrillas were responsible for assassinating Guerrero but insisted the killing was a mistake.