Chapultepec Peace Accords
The Chapultepec Peace Accords were a set of peace agreements signed on January 16, 1992, the Salvadoran Civil Warended . The treaty established peace between the Salvadoran government and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). It was signed in Chapultepec Castle, Mexico. The treaty was negotiated by representatives of the Salvadoran government, the rebel movement FMLN, and political parties, with observers from the Roman Catholic Church and United Nations. The peace talks were mediated by Álvaro de Soto, the special representative of the UN Secretary-General. The final agreement was divided into 9 chapters that covered 5  fundamental areas: Compliance with the agreements took place under the supervision of a special mission of the United Nations, which gave a settlement after 3 years of management. On December 31, 1991, the government and the FMLN initialed a preliminary peace agreement under the auspices of UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar. The final agreement was signed in Mexico City on January 16, 1992, at Chapultepec Castle. A nine-month ceasefire took effect on February 1, 1992, and it has never been broken. Civil War. The Salvadoran Civil War began on October 15, 1979, with the 1979 Salvadoran coup  d'état which overthrew President Carlos Humberto Romero. The coup has covert support from the United States, who wished to prevent Humberto Romero's government from falling to left-wing militant groups in the country, the same fate as did the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle in Nicaragua. The coup of 1979 allowed for the rise of militant left-wing groups in the country. The five largest groups, Farabundo Martí People's Forces of Liberation (FPL), Communist Party of El Salvador (PCES), National Resistance (RN), People's Revolutionary Army (ERP), and the Revolutionary Party of the Central American Workers – El Salvador  (PRTC) to join forces on October 10, 1980, nearly one year after the coup, to form the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), the most prominent opposition force to the Salvadoran government throughout the Salvadoran Civil War. The group was named after Farabundo Martí, the leader of the Communist Party during an uprising in 1932 which resulted in the massacre of 10,000 to 40,000 peasants under the rule of Maximiliano Hernández Martínez. The resulting civil war killed anywhere from 70,000 to 80,000 people and lasted twelve years from 1979 to 1992. After 10 years of war, more than one million  people had been displaced out of a population of 5,389,000. 40% of the homes of newly displaced people were completely destroyed and another 25% were in need of major repairs. Death squad activities further escalated in 1990, despite a U.N. Agreement on Human Rights signed July 26 by the Cristiani government and the FMLN. Previous peace process. The Peace Accords were the result of a long negotiation process between the Government and the FMLN that had begun in the mid-1980s. The first meetings took place in Chalatenango on October 15, 1984, exactly 5 years after the start of the civil  war. Further negotiations occurred in La Libertad on November 30, 1984. A third round of negotiations occurred in San Miguel on September 19, 1986. The last negotiations occurred in San Salvador on October 4, 1987 between President José Napoleón Duarte and government officials with delegates of the FMLN's leadership. Despite the attempts to establish peace and end the war, none of them succeeded and the war dragged on. Chalatenango. On October 15, 1984, the first round of negotiations occurred in La Palma, Chalatenango. The meeting resulted in the "La Palma Joint Communiqué." The Government delegation was made up of  the President, José Napoleón Duarte, while the guerrilla delegation was headed by Dr. Guillermo Manuel Ungo, a former member of the Revolutionary Government Junta, with Monsignor Arturo Rivera y Damas, Archbishop of San Salvador, acting as a mediator. The statement was brief and vague; without firm agreements and with the sole achievement of constituting a political rapprochement. La Libertad. On November 30, 1984, the second round of negotiations occurred in Ayagualo, La Libertad. The negotiations were headed by government representative Abraham Rodríguez with Rubén Zamora representing the guerrillas. Rivera y Damas, Giacomo Otonello, and Gregorio Rosa Chávez acted as mediators . At the meeting, the "Ayagualo Joint Communiqué" was drafted. San Miguel. On September 19, 1986, the third round of negotiations took place in Sesori, San Miguel. Rodolfo Antonio Castillo Claramunt represented the government and Jorge Villacorta represented the guerillas with Monsignor Rivera y Damas acting as mediator. The terms of the negotiations were not carried out however due to a breakdown in the negotiations. It was not until several months later that the process was resumed in a private meeting in Panama. San Salvador. From October 4 to 5, 1987, the final round of negotiations occurred in San Salvador. Fidel  Chávez Mena represented the government with Salvador Samayoa representing the guerillas and Monsignor Rivera y Damas as mediator. At that meeting, the "Joint Communiqué of the Third Dialogue Meeting" was issued which stated the government and guerrillas will to seek a ceasefire and to support the decisions made by the Contadora Group which was seeking peace in Central America. International intervention. In 1989, the government of President Alfredo Cristiani called for a dialogue meeting which was held on September 15 of that year in Mexico City. There, a joint request for mediation was addressed to the Secretary General of the  United Nations, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar. It was agreed to and Álvaro de Soto was appointed as special representative. On November 11, 1989, the FMLN launched a general offensive to demonstrate its military strength. The offensive was contained by the Armed Forces. After the offensive concluded in a stalemate with 2,500 dead, many analysts considered the impossibility of military victory for either side in the conflict. On April 4, 1990, a dialogue meeting was held in Geneva, Switzerland, where an agreement was signed that established the set of rules to be followed in the negotiation process and established the will  of both parties to reach a negotiated and political solution to end the war. The objectives of the negotiation were set: On May 21, 1990, at a new meeting in Caracas, Venezuela, the general agenda for negotiations was established and the issues that would be submitted for discussion. Two negotiating delegations were created: the government under David Escobar Galindo, Abelardo Rodríguez, Oscar Santamaría, and Mauricio Ernesto Vargas, and the FMLN under Schafik Handal, Joaquín Villalobos, Salvador Sánchez Cerén, Eduardo Sancho Castañeda, Francisco Jovel, Salvador Samayoa, Nidia Díaz, Juan Ramón Medrano, Ana Guadalupe Martínez, and Roberto Reeds. Accords. On January 16 , 1992, the full text of the agreements was signed in the Castle of Chapultepec in a solemn act, with the assistance of Heads of State from friendly countries, as well as official negotiating delegations. Chapter I. Chapter I handled with the Armed Forces of El Salvador which accepted the following terms: Chapter II. Chapter II handled with the police force of the nation to which the government complied with the following terms: Chapter III. Chapter III handled with human rights and the judiciary to which the government complied with the following terms: Chapter IV. Chapter IV handled the civil and  political rights of citizens which both sides agreed to: Chapter V. Chapter V handled economic and social fields to which the government agreed to: Compliance. The definitive cessation of the fighting occurred on February 1, 1992, under the supervision of COPAZ and the notable presence of former FMLN commanders and their former enemies. In order for such a meeting to take place, the Legislative Assembly approved a National Reconciliation Law on January 23, by means of which El Salvador refused to open legal cases against the war fighters, opening a national amnesty. The Massive and gradual loss of troops from  the Armed Forces took place while ex-guerrilla combatants were deployed from the occupied zones to fifteen areas that had previously been established for that purpose. Guerrilla weapons were deposited in containers controlled by ONUSAL, except those small arms intended for personal defense. Police agents from various countries accompanied the National Police on patrol tasks, which had ceased to depend on the Ministry of National Defense; said support was given until the creation of the National Civil Police. The distribution of land to ex-combatants took longer than expected, as did the establishment of the National Academy of Public Security  and the legalization of the FMLN as a political party. The delays began to create tension among the political forces which led COPAZ to call for a rescheduling which was carried out on June 12, 1992. Said schedule was repeatedly modified to adjust to the actual deadlines that set the pace of progress in the process. Several months later than planned, on December 15, 1992, the definitive end of the armed conflict was officially celebrated. Conclusion of accords. In 1997, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary General of the United Nations, ended the peace process in El Salvador, noting that although it  was true that not all the agreements had been fully complied with, the degree of compliance was acceptable. Monuments. The Monument to Peace is a sculpture designed by the sculptor Rubén Martínez that was unveiled in the municipality of San Marcos, El Salvador. The figure of the "Christ of Peace", which was made with bullet casings, brass and cast bronze, and stands with outstretched arms as a symbol of reconciliation between the political ideologies of the right and the left. The figure of a dove in his left hand in flight position. In 2017, on the 25th anniversary of the  signing of the peace accords in the, President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, an ex-FMLN commander, celebrated with the inauguration of the Reconciliation Monument.