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El Salvador The Crisis in Central America
During the Duarte administration, most Salvadoran foreign
policy efforts were focused on Central America and the potential
resolution of political conflict that manifested itself in the
form of antigovernment insurgencies in El Salvador, Nicaragua,
and Guatemala. Although Costa Rica and Honduras had not
experienced insurgencies, their governments were concerned with
potential political spillover from neighboring states. By the
early 1980s, most observers agreed that, given the historical,
familial, geographic, and economic interrelationship of the
Central American states, a regional solution to this crisis was
the most logical and efficacious approach. Early efforts toward
this end in the United Nations (UN) and the Organization of
American States (OAS), as well as tentative mediating efforts by
the governments of Mexico and Venezuela, failed to make any
substantive progress toward the institution of a regional
negotiating process. It was not until 1983 and the establishment
of the Contadora Group that serious negotiating efforts began
among the five Central American states.
Data as of November 1988
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