17th Anniversary of Peace Accords

Today, January 16, is the 17th anniversary of the signing of the 1992 Peace Accords which concluded the civil war in San Salvador. Although there has not been war for 17 years, El Salvador still lacks peace. The level of polarization in the country is great, and the antagonisms between left and right run deep.

As Ernesto Rivas-Gallont commented to me earlier today, it is a sad statement that Salvadorans cannot celebrate the end of armed conflict in a united fashion, as one country. Instead, the FMLN held its commemoration in one part of San Salvador, and the ARENA-led government held official commemorations elsewhere.

The country is going to have national elections for mayors and legislative deputies in two days. One can hope for a peaceful and transparent process and that with each new democratic election, the chances that the left or right will seek to impose their will by force of arms will continue to fade into the past.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Thank you Tim. It was good to see you and your friends yesterday. I write an editorial in my blog Monday on the Peace Accords.

Ernesto
10:03 AM
Carlos X. said…
This is exactly right. How can any government claim that the peace accords have been fulfilled when the two war time rift remains and is so prevalent that they cannot come together even to commemorate the most important thing they have in common, and the most important thing either has contributed to the country?
3:53 PM
Unknown said…
What is also very sad, is that upon the verge of peace anniversaries reaching a symbolic coming of age, a Mayoria de Edad, we are still considered by ourselves and by foreigners as being poltically immature, and beholden to foreign inspection of our political electoral processes.

That is really sad, that we are still unable to apply and believe in our own system of self control and certification of the validity of our elections.

That is really sad.
9:37 AM
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