What the El Salvador peace accords mean
1992Jim Henle 1992-02Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 1 →
Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: expect misread words, and now and then a caption or a line from a neighbouring story. For anything you quote, read the scan.
Scan page 1
On New Year's Day, the guns fell silent in El Salvador. With the signing of a peace agreement in New York, the Salvadoran government suspended all offensive military operations. The opposed forces of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) had earlier enacted a unilateral cease-fire to further the peace negotiations. FMLN General Command member Leonel Gonzales declared: "The war in El Salvador 1s over.
New Year's celebrations became impromptu rallies for peace, as news of the accords hit the capital city of San Salvador. Hundreds of people danced until dawn in front of the National Cathedral.
The tremendous feeling of relief that the devastating war was over was mingled with a sense of a long struggle's vindication. Chano Guevara, FMILN commander in the Guazapa volcano area-where the FMLN had held strong only 30 miles from the capitol-summed up the pride and hopes of many combatants: "All the sweat, blood, prison, torture, and exile finally merged into a powerful force that allows us to begin realizing, from this day on, the dream of democracy we awaited for so long. What an honor to have been part of this effort!" (Boston Globe, Jan. 19, 1992.)
For 12 years, the Salvadoran government has tried to destroy the guerrilla forces of the FMLN and the Salvadoran popular movement by any means necessary. Death squads and military attacks have been used to defend a narrow social base of commer(continued on 15)