The “Procedure to Establish a Firm and Lasting Peace in Central America,” known as “Esquipulas II,” was a peace plan designed by Costa Rican president Oscar Arias to address high levels of violence and economic security across the region during the 1980s. The plan was signed by the presidents of five Central American countries and Arias was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.
This paper discusses the causes and features of the conflicts, the mediation process, the effects of regional conflict dynamics on the mediation, and mediation strategies to address these dynamics.
The Mediation in Regionalized Intra-State Conflict project focuses on international mediation in intra-state conflicts that have significant regional conflict dimensions. The problem of conflict regionalization arises most acutely where neighbouring states provide military support to domestic conflict parties and may even be involved in hostilities. These dynamics constitute a worrying trend because they tend to make the conflicts more protracted and less amenable to resolution through mediation.
This article is part of the “Mediation in regionalized conflicts: lessons from recent peace processes” project, led by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.