Lecture | Peace Histories Seminar Series
Peace Process in El Salvador: From Contadora to Prodere
- Date
- Monday 7 September 2026
- Time
- Address
-
Johan Huizinga
Doelensteeg 16
2311 VL Leiden - Room
- Conference room (2.60)
This talk aims to address the evolution of the peace process in El Salvador, which involved a series of transnational (formal and informal) and multilateral actors and served as a prelude to a unique transitional process. The war in El Salvador erupted in the fall of 1980 after three years of escalating violence, culminating in the sensational media coverage of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero of San Salvador on March 24, 1980. The war claimed more than 80,000 lives, predominantly peasants, concentrated in the first three years, 1981-1983, which coincided with the height of the New Cold War in Central America.
Attempts to initiate a negotiation process marked the entire decade, starting with the Franco-Mexican Declaration of August 1981 and continuing through the Contadora Declaration of July 1984. However, it would take until the Chapultepec Agreements of January 1992 for an effective resolution to the conflict. That peace treaty also spawned a series of experiments: from the UN Truth Commission report, "De la locura a la esperanza", to the launch of a regional development plan, Prodere (1990–1995), promoted by the UN and EEC, with Italy as the lead partner. In that twilight period of bipolarism, the small Central American country experienced unprecedented international resonance, and studying its peace process helps us understand the complex interweavings of its glocal and transnational history.
