ABSTRACT

This chapter introduces the political and military context that the UN entered when it joined the peace process and examines the role of the United Nations in the Salvadoran peace process. United Nations involvement in El Salvador is analyzed through use of the seven dimensions of the Manwaring paradigm illustrating the application of the paradigm to a traditional peacekeeping operation and emphasizing again the centrality of the role of legitimacy. Observer Mission In El Salvador created several divisions, including a human rights division, an electoral division, and a military and police division as part of a peace keeping operation designed to monitor agreements between the government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). The FMLN launched its November 1989 offensive less than six weeks later and continued a war of destruction and killing until the January 1992 Peace Accords.