Engaging with armed groups - Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue

The FMLN andthe UN in El SalvadorIn November 1989 the largest offensive of the civil war betweenthe broadly Marxist-Leninist Farabundo Martí National LiberationFront (FMLN) and the Government of El Salvador revealeda military stalemate that forced the parties into UN-mediatednegotiations. These were facilitated by earlier contacts the UN hadestablished with the FMLN through a highly capable individualwho represented the organisation on human rights issues. Heencouraged discussion with FMLN commanders in the margins ofa meeting of the non-aligned movement held in Harare in 1988. Infurther consultations UN officials offered assurances to the FMLNof the Secretary-General’s impartiality as a mediator, and distinctionfrom the UN Security Council.The United States did not question the UN’s contacts with theFMLN but subsequently raised concern that the mediator, Alvarode Soto, was partial to it. He countered by encouraging the US tomeet with the FMLN itself. In time it did. A US Congressman andthe US Ambassador travelled to a guerrilla camp within El Salvadorbefore the conflict’s end, and the US Ambassador to the UNquietly attended a meeting with the FMLN’s General Commandduring the final stages of negotiations held in New York in late1991. The US put important pressure on the Salvadoran Governmentto accept the peace agreement and became a firm supporterof its implementation.8