Getting to Peace in El Salvador: The Roles of the United Nations Secretariat and ONUSAL

In: Journal of Interamerican studies and world affairs, Volume 37, Issue 4, p. 139-172

Abstract

During 1995, the 50th anniversary year of the United Nations (UN), news of the failure of its peacekeeping missions in Bosnia, Somalia, and Rwanda dominated the media and political rhetoric. In El Salvador, however, a UN mission with a legitimate claim to success was able to close its doors on 30 April 1995. How is this remarkable achievement to be explained? And, what are the lessons — positive and negative — that can be learned from the 45 months during which the United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador (Misión de Obseruadores de las Naciones Unidas en El Salvador or ONUSAL) oversaw a transition from war to peace and verified a lengthy set of peace accords?The success of ONUSAL was anything but assured when it began in July 1991, some six months before there was even a cease-fire.