Forces (Grupos de Tarea Antipandillas)
| IACHR | Inter-American Court of Human Rights |
| IDB | Inter-American Development Bank |
| IDHUCA | Human Rights Institute at the University of Central America (Instituto de Derechos Humanos de la UCA) |
| IIRAIRA | Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act |
| ILO | International Labor Organization |
| IML | Institute of Forensic Medicine (Instituto de Medicina Legal) |
| INAZUCAR | National Sugar Institute (Instituto Nacional de Azúcar) |
| INCAFE | National Coffee Institute (Instituto Nacional del Café) |
| INS | Immigration and Naturalization Service |
| ISDEMU | Salvadoran Institute for the Advancement of Women (Instituto Salvadoreño para el Desarrollo de la Mujer) |
| ISI | import substitution industrialization |
| ISSS | Salvadoran Social Security Institute (Instituto Salvadoreño del Seguro Social) |
| IUDOP | University of Central America Institute for Public Opinion (Instituto Universitario de Opinión Pública Universidad Centroamericana, “José Simeón Cañas”) |
| IVA | value-added tax (impuesto al valor agregado) |
| JVE | Electoral Review Board (Junta de Revisión Electoral) |
| LAR | ARENA League to the Rescue (Liga Arenera al Rescate) |
| MAC | Authentic Christian Movement (Movimiento Auténtico Cristiano) |
| MCC | Millennium Challenge Corporation |
| MINUSAL | United Nations Mission in El Salvador (Misión de las Naciones Unidas en El Salvador) |
| MIPLAN | Ministry of Planning and Coordination of Economic and Social Development (Ministerio de Planificación y Coordinación del Desarrollo Económico y Social) |
| MNR | National Revolutionary Movement (Movimiento Nacional Revolucionario) |
| MPR-12 | Popular Resistance Movement of October 12 (Movimiento Popular de Resistencia 12 de Octubre) |
| MPSC | Popular Social Christian Movement (Movimiento Popular Social Cristiana) |
| MS-13 | Mara Salvatrucha |
| NACLA | North American Congress on Latin America |
| NGO | nongovernmental organization |
| OAS | French Secret Army Organization (Organisation de l’Armée Secrète) |
| ONUCA | United Nations Observer Group in Central America |
| ONUSAL | United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador |
| ORDEN | Nationalist Democratic Organization (Organización Democrática Nacionalista) |
| PARLACEN | Central American Parliament (Parlamento Centroamericano) |
| PCN | National Conciliation Party (Partido de Conciliación Nacional) |
| PCS | Salvadoran Communist Party (Partido Comunista de El Salvador) |
| PD | Democratic Party (Partido Democrático) |
| PDC | Christian Democratic Party (Partido Demócrata Cristiana) |
| PDDH | National Counsel for the Defense of Human Rights (Procuraduría para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos) |
| PES | Party of Hope (Partido de la Esperanza) |
| PFG | Partnership for Growth |
| PLD | Liberal Democratic Party (Partido Liberal Democráta) |
| PMR | Reformist Movement Party (Partido Movimiento Renovador) |
| PN | National Police (Policía Nacional) |
| PNC | National Civilian Police (Policía Nacional Civil) |
| PND | National Democratic Party (Partido Nacional Democrático) |
| PRI | Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) (Mexico) |
| PRN | National Reconstruction Plan (Plan de Reconstrucción Nacional) |
| PRTC | Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers (Partido Revolucionario de Trabajadores Centroamericanos) |
| PRUD | Revolutionary Party of Democratic Unification (Partido Revolucionario de Unificación Democrática) |
| PTT | Land Transfer Program (Programa de Transferencia de la Tierra) |
| RN | National Resistance (Resistencia Nacional) |
| RNPN | National Registry of Natural Persons (Registro Nacional de Personas Naturales) |
| SIF | Social Investment Fund (Fondo de Inversión Social) |
| SIMETRISSS | Medical Workers Union of the Salvadoran Social Security Institute (Sindicato de Médicos Trabajadores del Instituto Salvadoreño del Seguro Social) |
| SIU | Special Investigative Unit of the Commission to Investigate Criminal Acts |
| SRN | Secretariat for National Reconstruction |
| SRP | Social Rescue Plan |
| STISSS | Workers’ Union Salvadoran Social Security Institute (Sindicato de Trabajadores del Instituto Salvadoreño del Seguro Social) |
| TPS | temporary protected status |
| TSE | Supreme Electoral Tribunal (Tribunal Supremo Electoral) |
| TVPA | U.S. Torture Victim Protection Act |
| UCA | University of Central America (Universidad Centroamericano, “Jose Simeón Cañas”) |
| UDN | Nationalist Democratic Union (Unión Democráta Nacional) |
| UEA | Executive Anti–Drug Trafficking Unit of the National Police (Unidad Ejecutiva Antinarcotráfico) |
| UES | University of El Salvador (Universidad de El Salvador) |
| UNDP | United Nations Development Program |
| Unidos | United for Solidarity (Unidos por la Solidaridad) |
| UNO | National Opposition Union (Unión Oposición Nacional) |
| UNODC | United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime |
| USAID | U.S. Agency for International Development |
Introduction
Peacebuilding, Elites, and the Problem of Capture
The population does not value peace as a synonym for progress. Peace for most people does not make sense because it has no social content, or the content lacks justice. The impact of the neoliberal transition of the past fifteen years has laid a foundation for society that trends toward authoritarianism rather than democracy.
—Salvador Sánchez Cerén, October 20061
ON OCTOBER 15, 1979, a group of junior officers overthrew El Salvador’s military government with the intent of forestalling a revolution. Decades of systematic repression, socioeconomic exclusion, and the collapse of legal political space in the early 1970s had resulted in the mobilization of guerrilla organizations and affiliated social groups that wished to dismantle the existing political and economic order in one of Central America’s most unequal and violent societies. The subsequent juntas, composed of military officers and civilians, had hoped to loosen the military’s grip on the state and the oligarchy’s grip on the economy. The successive juntas failed to achieve the reforms it deemed necessary to prevent the escalation of violence, reforms that threatened the country’s most powerful economic elites. The levels of state violence increased and, by 1980, El Salvador was a country at war with itself.
More than seventy-five thousand Salvadorans were killed and one million more displaced in the civil war, making it one of the most destructive in the region. Driven to the negotiating table by a military stalemate with the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) guerrillas, the Salvadoran government under President Alfredo Cristiani invited the United Nations to mediate a settlement that would end the war. El Salvador’s civil war was to be the first in which the United Nations agreed to act as mediator in such negotiations. The negotiations began in April 1990 and continued for almost two years, during which the participation of the UN and mediation by the secretary general’s office were crucial to the successful negotiation of sensitive issues, particularly military reform. On January 16, 1992, representatives for the government of El Salvador (GOES) and the FMLN signed the peace accords that aimed not only to end the civil war but to build lasting peace. The Chapúltepec Peace Accords, named after the castle where they were signed in Mexico City, promised a new beginning for El Salvador. Hailed as a success story of United Nations peacebuilding efforts, the peace process transformed the country’s political landscape. The accords placed the military under civilian control for the first time in El Salvador’s history. State-sponsored terrorism ceased to be the modus operandi of the country’s various “security forces,” which were eliminated and replaced with a new civilian police force. Opposition parties and their affiliated organizations were legalized and, over time, functioned without fear of recrimination. The FMLN transitioned from a guerrilla movement to political party, becoming the largest party in the legislature and governing more than 50 percent of the population
