246 - August 1993 Church bells pealed throughout El Salvador. Crowds danced and sang in every town and village.
Fireworks burst across the night sky, where once there had only been tracer bullets.
The ceasefire came into effect on the first of February 1992. The commanders of the five political-military groups which make up the FMLN flew back into the country and openly addressed a rally in the centre of the capital, San Salvador. Nothing like it had been seen since 1980, when a million people demonstrated in support of opposition demands for reform. Almost half of the 55,000-strong government forces and all of the guerillas have been demobilized. The most notorious of the security forces have been disbanded and replaced by a police force under civilian control.