Duarte Daughter Freed in Trade With Rebels : Kidnaped Salvadoran Officials Also Exchanged for Political Prisoners, Wounded Guerrillas

SAN SALVADOR â€”  President Jose Napoleon Duarte and his eldest daughter were reunited in a tropical downpour Thursday, 44 days after Ines Guadalupe Duarte Duran was kidnaped from a private university in the capital.

The emotional reunion on the soccer field of the Capt. Gerardo Barrios Military School was part of the most massive exchange of political prisoners and wounded in the history of this country’s 5 1/2-year civil war.

As Duarte Duran, 35, ran crying from a civilian helicopter into the arms of her father and other relatives, International Red Cross officials and church leaders went through with the daylong exchange. President Duarte said he felt “great joy� at his daughter’s release but made no further comment.

Tuesday’s Accord

Under the agreement reached Tuesday with the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, an alliance of five guerrilla organizations fighting the U.S.-backed Duarte government, the rebels said they would release Duarte Duran, a friend kidnaped with her and 33 mayors and municipal officials captured since April. The government, in turn, pledged to free 22 political prisoners and to allow 96 wounded guerrillas safe passage out of the country.

A nationwide cease-fire was called during the operation. The government said that it was respected, but the rebels, broadcasting on clandestine Radio Venceremos, asserted that the government violated the agreement.

After Duarte Duran and a companion, Ana Cecilia Villeda, 23, were abducted from the capital Sept. 10, the efforts to identify her abductors and secure her freedom nearly paralyzed the Duarte government.

Duarte, obviously overcome with emotion at the reunion, was speechless as he cradled his daughter’s head in his arm.

“We’re very happy,� said his wife, Ines Duran de Duarte, before the family left for home in a convoy of vehicles.

Guerrillas released Duarte Duran and Villeda in Tenancingo, a ghost town about 20 miles northeast of the capital that has been uninhabited since it was bombed by the army in September, 1983.

Minister of Communications Julio Rey Prendes said that the two women were turned over to a group that included Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas, Duarte Duran’s brother, Alejandro, and members of the International Red Cross.

They were driven to the nearby town of Santa Cruz Michapa, where they met the helicopter that brought them to the capital.

Duarte Duran, wearing jeans and a blue windbreaker, ran first to her mother, then to her father, and to her children. The family huddled for several minutes, surrounded by military and political leaders who had been instrumental in the women’s return.

Rey Prendes called the complicated prisoner exchange a “global operation� that began at about 6 a.m., with the evacuation of some of the war wounded from guerrilla-controlled areas, and it was expected to be completed by nighttime.

The logistics involved in the operation were complex. The kidnaped mayors were released in five towns throughout the country, and the wounded rebels were collected from seven towns.

Makeshift Hospitals

The government allowed 96 wounded guerrillas who have been hospitalized at makeshift facilities in rebel areas to leave the country, apparently for Panama and Mexico. Reporters saw some of the wounded rebels turned over to the Red Cross near the town of Suchitoto, about 28 miles from the capital. The guerrillas delivered the most seriously wounded on bamboo stretchers; some of the rebels were unconscious, and others were apparently in severe pain.

Panamanian and Mexican airplanes were waiting for the wounded at Comalapa International Airport. The road to the airport was closed by soldiers.

Rey Prendes said that of the 22 political prisoners released, only four would leave the country and the other 18 were expected to return to the mountains to rejoin the guerrillas in their battle against the government.

Many of the prisoners waved their arms and smiled as they left the men’s penitentiary here, known as Mariona, in the back of a Red Cross truck.

Reporters’ access to the prisoners was limited Thursday, but in a telephone interview from Ilopango women’s prison Wednesday night, Rosa Elena Romero, one of the prisoners, said that she hoped to rejoin her rebel group.

“I will stay with the vanguard of my people. I want to go to the zones where we are continuing to fight,� Romero said. She is believed to be a member of the Central American Revolutionary Workers Party.

Communist Party Leader

Also released were Nidia Diaz, a commander of the Central American Revolutionary Workers Party, who was one of the rebel representatives at peace talks with the government in La Palma a year ago, and Americo Mauro Araujo, one of the top leaders of the Salvadoran Communist Party. It is thought that Araujo’s capture on Aug. 9 provoked Duarte Duran’s abduction.

The Armed Liberation Forces, the armed wing of the Communist Party and one of the five groups in the Farabundo Marti Front, is believed to have carried out the kidnaping. The entire Farabundo Marti leadership acknowledged responsibility for the kidnaping afterward.

The front said that the kidnaping was part of its battle to bring down the Duarte government. During the negotiations, the rebels launched their largest military attack of the year, killing 42 recruits and wounding about 72 others at the army’s main training school in the eastern province of La Union.

Traffic Interference

The guerrillas also interrupted traffic on major highways for two weeks by putting up roadblocks and shooting at civilian and military vehicles that violated what the rebels proclaimed as a traffic ban.

The kidnaping put a strain on Duarte’s touchy relationship with the powerful army, brought him criticism from the extreme right wing and even created tensions within his own party over his handling of the ordeal.

Many critics believed the president should not have negotiated with the kidnapers and accused him of putting family considerations before the interests of the country.

The rebels agreed to give up about 33 mayors and municipal officials, but Rey Prendes said Thursday that he was not sure how many officials were missing or would be returned. He said the government received new information that five additional officials were in rebel hands and would be freed.

The guerrillas said they kidnaped the mayors because they had no right to govern in rebel-controlled areas.

The government and the guerrillas have undertaken at least two earlier prisoner exchanges. The largest took place in October, 1984, when the guerrillas freed eight army officers in exchange for four rebel commanders and safe passage for 60 wounded guerrillas to hospitals in Europe and Latin America.

In June, 1984, Defense Minister Carlos Vides Casanova’s kidnaped brother, Eduardo, was traded for a guerrilla commander in an exchange arranged by the International Red Cross.

The government said the army respected an agreement not to fire weapons or move troops during the current exchange. The rebels, however, claimed that a confrontation occurring Wednesday night near Jucuaran in the eastern province of Usulutan had violated the agreement.

The rebels said that the clash involved soldiers and guerrillas who were attempting to evacuate the wounded. They asserted that foreign diplomats and Red Cross officials were present during the confrontation. Rey Prendes, on the other hand, claimed that the clash occurred between rebels civil defense force members and that it had ended before the exchange began.