UN PEACEKEEPING MISSIONS IN CENTRAL AMERICA
This research paper examines the origins, mandates, operations and accomplishments of the first peacekeeping missions of the United Nations (UN) in Central America, the UN Observer Group in Central America, (ONUCA) 1989-1991 and the UN Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL) 1991-1995.
As the Cold War wound down and especially after it ended, ethno-religious, social and other civil conflicts broke out and intensified in many areas of the world. These conflicts placed increasing demands on the UN to carry out various kinds of peacekeeping missions for which it often was ill-prepared structurally, financially and in other ways. In Nicaragua and El Salvador, the cessation of outside military assistance to indigenous revolutionaries, regional initiatives, exhaustion of local combatants and other developments provided openings for the beginning of peace processes, involving the contending forces and groups in each society. During 1989-1991, ONUCA, despite numerous obstacles and a hesitant beginning, played an important role in verifying a cease-fire, separating combatants and demobilizing the Nicaraguan Resistance or Contras. Under even more demanding circumstances, ONUSAL performed similar tasks in El Salvador during 1991-1995 and also facilitated a meaningful political dialogue between the Salvadorian government and guerrilla forces and the adoption of the internal reforms needed to begin a process of reconciliation of former enemies.
Since Spanish colonial times, Nicaragua has been plagued by turbulent political struggles, tyrannical rule, a primitive agricultural economy and great inequalities of wealth. The United States in pursuit of dollar diplomacy and to prevent instability in a country near the Panama Canal intervened militarily in Nicaragua in 1912 and 1927. The U.S. generally supported the 45 year Somoza family dictatorship until shortly before it was overthrown by the San...