|
Honduras The Arias Plan
The five Central American presidents continued to seek
a
strictly Central American diplomatic solution. They held a
meeting
in May 1986 in Esquipulas, Guatemala, in an effort to work
out
their differences over the revised Contadora draft treaty.
This
meeting was a precursor of the process that in early 1987
superseded Contadora. The leading proponent and architect
of this
process was the president of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias
Sánchez. After
consultations with representatives of Honduras, El
Salvador,
Guatemala, and the United States, Arias announced on
February 15,
1987, that he had presented a peace proposal to
representatives of
the other Central American states, with the exception of
Nicaragua.
The plan called for dialogue between governments and
opposition
groups, amnesty for political prisoners, cease-fires in
ongoing
insurgent conflicts, democratization, and free elections
in all
five regional states. The plan also called for renewed
negotiations
on arms reductions and an end to outside aid to insurgent
forces.
Including the Nicaraguan administration in the
negotiations was
a sensitive issue. The first formal negotiating session to
include
representatives of that government took place in
Tegucigalpa on
July 31, 1987. That meeting of foreign ministers paved the
way for
an August 6, 1987, gathering of the five Central American
presidents in Esquipulas. The negotiations, reportedly
marked by
blunt exchanges among the leaders, produced an agreement
that many
had considered unachievable only months before. The
agreement,
signed on August 7, called for the cessation of outside
aid and
support to insurgent forces but did allow the continuation
of such
aid to government forces. As a democratic government free
from
domestic insurgent problems, Honduras could easily comply
with the
terms of the Esquipulas accord.
The Central American Peace Agreement, variously
referred to as
"Esquipulas II" or the "Arias Plan," initially required
the
implementation of certain conditions by November 5, 1987.
The
conditions included establishing decrees of amnesty in
those
countries involved in insurgent conflicts, initiating
dialogue
between governments and unarmed political opposition
groups or
groups that had taken advantage of amnesty, undertaking
efforts to
negotiate cease-fires between governments and insurgent
groups,
ceasing to allow outside aid to insurgent forces, denying
the use
of each country's national territory to "groups trying to
destabilize the governments of the countries of Central
America,"
and ensuring conditions conducive to the development of a
"pluralistic and participatory democratic process" in all
of the
signatory states.
Nicaragua's compliance with the Arias Plan was uneven
by late
1988, and the process appeared to be losing momentum. The
Nicaraguan government took a number of initial steps to
comply with
the treaty. These included allowing the independent daily
La
Prensa to reopen and the radio station of the Roman
Catholic
Church to resume broadcasting, establishing a national
reconciliation committee that incorporated representatives
of the
unarmed opposition, and eventually undertaking cease-fire
negotiations with representatives of the Contras. The
optimism
engendered by the signing of a provisional cease-fire
accord on
March 23, 1988, at Sapoá, Nicaragua, however, had largely
dissipated by July. During that month, the Nicaraguan
government
broke up a protest demonstration in the southern city of
Nandaime,
expelled the United States ambassador and seven other
diplomats for
alleged collaboration with the demonstrators, and again
shut down
La Prensa and the Roman Catholic radio station.
Data as of December 1993
|
