What was the Esquipulas II peace agreement for Central America?

Esquipulas II: peace for Central America

Los acuerdos de Esquipulas

7 August 1987. By the mid-1980s Central America was at war with itself: the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua fought US-backed contras, guerrillas fought the army in El…

Draft: not yet checked against its sources.

Where: Central America, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica

What happened

By the mid-1980s Central America was at war with itself: the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua fought US-backed contras, guerrillas fought the army in El Salvador, and Guatemala's long internal war had killed tens of thousands, most of them Maya villagers. In February 1987 Costa Rica's president Óscar Arias proposed a regional peace plan. On 7 August 1987, at Esquipulas in Guatemala, the five presidents, Arias, Cerezo, Duarte, Azcona and Ortega, signed the 'Procedure for a firm and lasting peace in Central America': ceasefires, amnesties, national reconciliation, free elections, an end to aid to irregular forces and a verification commission. Arias received the Nobel Peace Prize that year. The accord set the process that led to Nicaragua's election of 1990, El Salvador's peace of 1992 and Guatemala's of 1996, and gave birth to the Central American Parliament.

Say it

En 1987 los cinco presidentes centroamericanos firmaron la paz en Esquipulas.

In 1987 the five Central American presidents signed the peace at Esquipulas.

Why it matters

Esquipulas was the region's own solution, made by Central Americans against the wishes of both superpowers, and it ended wars that had sent hundreds of thousands north to the United States. Its legacy, in Arias's words, is 'fertile' but 'unfinished'.

Read about it

• La United Fruit en Centroamérica — United Fruit in Central America
• El acta de independencia de Centroamérica — The Act of Independence of Central America

Connected

• Central America declares independence (15 September 1821)
• Central America declares independence (15 September 1821)
• The Panama Canal opens (15 August 1914)
• The banana massacre at Ciénaga (6 December 1928)
• Migration north and the Spanish of the United States (1942–)
• Migration north and the Spanish of the United States (1942–)
• The Cuban Revolution (1 January 1959)
• The return to democracy (1977–1990)

• Before: The Panama Canal opens

Sources

1. Ex Presidentes Arias y Cerezo y Secretario General Insulza conmemoran en la OEA el aniversario de los Acuerdos de Esquipulas — Organización de los Estados Americanos