El Salvador

Throughout the human rights catastrophe that seized El Salvador during its brutal civil conflict, Washington's cold war concerns ensured massive US support for the El Salvador government and military against the guerrilla forces of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN).

In January 1992 the government and the FMLN signed a definitive peace accord in Mexico City, after negotiations mediated by the UN. In 1994, no issue represented a greater threat to the peace process and the elections than the rise in political murders of leaders and grassroots activists belonging to the FMLN.