The Esquipulas Nicaraguan Peace Agreement, also known as the Central American Peace Accords, was a peace initiative in the mid-1980s to settle the military conflicts that had plagued

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

for many years, and in some cases (notably

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

) for decades. It built upon groundwork laid by the Contadora Group from 1983 to 1985. The agreement was named for

Esquipulas Esquipulas (Nahuatl: Isquitzuchil, "place where flowers abound"), officially Municipality of Esquipulas, whose original name was Yzquipulas, is a town, with a population of 18,667 (2018 census), and a municipality located in the department of Chiq ...

, where the initial meetings took place. The US Congress lobbying efforts were helped by one of Capitol Hill's top lobbyists, William C. Chasey. In May 1986, a summit meeting at dawn, "Esquipulas I," took place, attended by the five Central American presidents. On February 15, 1987,

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Óscar Arias Óscar Arias Sánchez (; born 13 September 1940 in Heredia, Costa Rica) is a Costa Rican activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He was President of Costa Rica from 1986 to 1990 and from 2006 to 2010. Arias was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize ...

submitted a Peace Plan which evolved from this meeting. During 1986 and 1987, the "Esquipulas Process" was established, in which the Central American heads of state agreed on economic cooperation and a framework for peaceful conflict resolution. The "Esquipulas II Accord" emerged from this and was signed in

Guatemala City Guatemala City (, also known colloquially by the nickname Guate), is the Capital city, national capital and largest city of the Guatemala, Republic of Guatemala. It is also the Municipalities of Guatemala, municipal capital of the Guatemala Depa ...

by President

Vinicio Cerezo Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo (born December 26, 1942) is a Guatemalan politician who served as the 40th President of Guatemala from 1986 to 1991. He also served as the Secretary General of the Central American Integration System (SICA) from 2 ...

of Guatemala, President

José Napoleón Duarte José Napoleón Duarte Fuentes (23 November 1925 – 23 February 1990) was a El Salvador, Salvadoran politician who served as President of El Salvador from 1 June 1984 to 1 June 1989. He was mayor of San Salvador before running for president in ...

of El Salvador, President

Daniel Ortega José Daniel Ortega Saavedra (; ; born 11 November 1945) is a Nicaraguan politician and dictator who has been the president of Nicaragua, co-president of Nicaragua since 18 February 2025, alongside his wife Rosario Murillo. He was the 54th an ...

of Nicaragua, President José Azcona del Hoyo of Honduras and President

Óscar Arias Sánchez Oscar or Oskar is a masculine given name of English and Irish origin. Etymology The name is derived from two elements in Irish: the first, ''os'', means "deer"; the second element, ''car'', means "loving" or "friend", thus "deer-loving one" or "f ...

of Costa Rica on August 7, 1987. Esquipulas II defined a number of measures to promote national reconciliation, an end to hostilities,

democratization Democratization, or democratisation, is the structural government transition from an democratic transition, authoritarian government to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction ...

, free elections, the termination of all assistance to

irregular forces Irregular military is any military component distinct from a country's regular armed forces, representing non-standard militant elements outside of conventional governmental backing. Irregular elements can consist of militias, private armie ...

, negotiations on arms controls, and assistance to

refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

s. It also laid the ground for international verification procedures and provided a timetable for implementation.

Involvement of Nicaragua

The US government refused to recognize the

Sandinista The Sandinista National Liberation Front (, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto César Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistan ...

regime's legitimacy to represent

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

in The Esquipulas Process, on the basis that the Sandinistas had taken power in a 1979 coup d'etat against the dictator

Anastasio Somoza Debayle Anastasio "Tachito" Somoza Debayle (; 5 December 1925 – 17 September 1980) was a Nicaraguan politician who served as the 53rd President of Nicaragua from 1967 to 1972 and again from 1974 to 1979. As head of the National Guard (Nicaragu ...

, establishing the

Junta of National Reconstruction The Junta of National Reconstruction () was the provisional government of Nicaragua from the fall of the Somoza family dictatorship in July 1979 until January 1985, with the election of Daniel Ortega ( FSLN) as president of Nicaragua. Overview T ...

. Although in 1984 the Sandinistas held an election, in which they won the majority of the votes, the main opposition parties boycotted this election under US pressure, and the US was able to claim that the victory was illegitimate. However the June 1986 outcome of the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; , CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the only international court that Adjudication, adjudicates general disputes between nations, and gives advisory opinions on International law, internation ...

case ''

Nicaragua v. United States ''The Republic of Nicaragua v. The United States of America'' (1986) was a case where the International Court of Justice (ICJ) held that the U.S. had violated Public international law, international law by United States and state-sponsored terro ...

'' created a "major shift in the regional context" which ultimately persuaded the other Central American leaders to accept Nicaragua as an equal partner. "Suddenly, Nicaragua, which had been treated like an outcast on more than one occasion, was walking the legal, if not moral, high-ground..."Oliver, Johanna (1999)
The Esquipulas Process: A Central American Paradigm for Resolving Regional Conflict
, ''Ethnic Studies Report'', Vol. XVII, No. 2, July 1999. p153 The November 1986 disclosure of the

Iran–Contra affair The Iran–Contra affair (; ), also referred to as the Iran–Contra scandal, the Iran Initiative, or simply Iran–Contra, was a political scandal in the United States that centered on arms trafficking to Iran between 1981 and 1986, facilitat ...

further weakened the US influence on the process.

After Esquipulas

In subsequent years, Esquipulas laid the groundwork for the Oslo Accord (not to be confused with the 1993

Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of interim agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993; and the Oslo II Accord, signed in Taba, Egypt, in 1995. They marked the st ...

between the Israeli government and the

PLO The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinian people in both the occupied Palestinian territories and the diaspora. ...

). This was a preliminary agreement between the Guatemalan National Reconciliation Commission (CNR) and the

Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity The Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (in Spanish: ''Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca'', URNG-MAIZ or most commonly URNG) is a Guatemalan political party that started as a guerrilla movement in 1982. The party laid down its ar ...

(URNG) which brought to an end more than three decades of strife in Guatemala. It also inspired the signing of a general peace agreement in

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

, the

Chapultepec Peace Accords The Chapultepec Peace Accords were a set of Peace treaty, peace agreements signed on January 16, 1992, the day in which the Salvadoran Civil War ended. The treaty established peace between the El Salvador, Salvadoran government and the Farabund ...

and others. Arias' efforts on behalf of the Esquipulas Peace Agreement earned him the 1987

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Language of Peace (UN Peacemaker mirror)

Language of Peace (UN Peacemaker mirror) History of Central America Peace treaties Civil wars involving the states and peoples of North America Treaties of Nicaragua Treaties of Guatemala Treaties of Costa Rica Treaties of Honduras Treaties of El Salvador Treaties of the United States Treaties concluded in 1987 Nicaragua–United States relations Salvadoran Civil War Nicaraguan Revolution

Involvement of Nicaragua

After Esquipulas

See also

References

External links