Building the Peace: Preliminary Lessons from El Salvador
Publisher: Journal of International Affairs Editorial Board
Author(s): David Holiday and WIlliam Stanley
Date: 1993
Topics: Economic Recovery, Governance, Livelihoods, Monitoring and Evaluation, Programming
Countries: El Salvador
When the peace agreement ending 12 years of civil war in E1 Salvador was signed at Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City in January 1992, it was declared by United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to be "a revolution achieved by negotiations."(2) Both the E1 Salvadoran government and the leftist opposition Farabundo Marti National Federation Front (FMLN) proclaimed their satisfaction with the peace accords, though for different reasons. The FMLN has emphasized the revolutionary extent of the agreed-upon reforms, while the government has stressed the achievement of peace and the preservation of constitutional order. Relatively few Salvadorans, mainly from the far Right, have spoken out against the accords. In the months after the cease-fire, however, the euphoria was replaced by caution, distrust and anger, as the implementation of the military demobilization and institutional and economic reforms fell further and further behind schedule.