Seeking Peace in El Salvador

The resolution of the civil war in El Salvador coincided with the end of the Cold War. It would prove to be a test of Soviet willingness to withdraw from support of revolutionary movements in Latin America and Washington's ability to help reconstruct a nation - twenty percent of whose population had emigrated to the United States. Analysis of the decision making in Washington, as well as the outreach to Moscow, is undertaken in conjunction with examination of the internal pressures to end the fighting. To assist in this process, the Salvadoran government accepted the United Nations as a 3rd party mediator. This book examines the work of Alvaro de Soto, the establishment of a UN Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the peace keeping role of ONUSAL. Each played a critical role in nudging both the government and the FMLN towards peace. However, after two years of negotiations and a decade-long effort to implement the peace accords, this work questions how peace was made and whether it has endured. Are the current levels of criminal violence a consequence of that civil war?

Autorentext

Diana Villiers Negroponte is a non-resident Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution, USA.

Inhalt
Theoretical Issues in El Salvador's Peace Process
Ancient Conflicts Modern Violence: The Causes And Context for Civil War
Internal Forces Struggle to Resolve the Civil War PartI the FMLN
Internal Pressures for Ending Salvador's Civil War PartII the Jesuits and ARENA
The United States: Protagonist or Mediator?
External Influences on the Negotiations To End the War in El Salvador
Introducing the United Nations
Four Critical Moments in the Negotiations
Implementation of the Chapultepec Accords: The Achievements
Challenges to the Peace Accords