Free activists, say Leftist guerrillas

Press, 25 October 1982, Page 8

Free activists, say Leftist guerrillas

NZPA-Reuter San Salvador Leftist guerrillas have demanded the immediate release of six moderate Leftist Salvadorean political activists who. they say. were kidnapped by Government forces over the past few days. The insurgents' Radio Venceremos yesterday described the Leftists’ detention by security forces as illegal and said that the move was further proof of the repressive nature of the United Statesbacked Salvadorean Government. The activists belong to the moderate Democratic Revolutionary Front, an umbrella group of a dozen unarmed opposition organisations. Virtually all front leaders live in exile, and the six activists reported missing — Carlos Molina, Mauricio Deomenech, Jorge Herrera, David Elias Guardon, Luis , Antonio Menjivar, and Carlos Menjivar — were among the few of the front’s ranking members remaining in El Salvador.

The front is not outlawed in El Salvador, although the front is linked to guerrillas in a "political, diplomatic commission.” representing the Salvadorean Left abroad and based in Mexico City. Front leaders said in a statement issued in Mexico City that the missing activists were being held at the treasury police headquarters prison in San Salvador. They contrasted the lack of information about the missing front officials with Radio Venceremos’ frequent interviews and news about the insurgents’ top captive, the Deputy Defence Minister, Colonel Francisco Adolfo Castillo. He was captured after his helicopter was shot down in June. In San Salvador, a spokesman for the treasury police, considered by critics as the worst security force violator of human rights, denied that it was holding front officials. “It is absolutely false that we have them in our power,” said the spokesman.