Guatemalan Peace Process 1994-1996

The Guatemalan Peace Process lasted from 1994 to 1996 and resulted in the Guatemalan Peace Accords.

The Guatemalan Civil War was a thirty-six-year internal conflict that took place from November 1960 to December 1996. The conflict was fought between the Guatemalan government and smaller leftist guerrilla groups that fought under the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG). It resulted in about 200,000 casualties and "disappearances", making it the deadliest armed conflict in Central America.

After a series of dictatorships, Guatemala was greatly pressured internationally to make efforts towards reincorporating democracy. In 1985, the then ruler General Oscar Mejía Victores allowed for the formation of a Constituent Assembly, which began working on a new democratic constitution. This new constitution was then finalized and ratified on May 30, 1985. The following year, democratic elections were held and Vinicio Cerezo was sworn in as president of Guatemala.

Prior to this, in 1983, the Contadora Group in Latin America, which was an initiative formed by Mexico, Venezuela, and Colombia, began promoting peace in the Central American countries undergoing internal conflicts (El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala). The group served as mediators in peace talks among all Central American rulers, which led to the drafting of the Contadora Act on Peace and Cooperation in Central America. The document did not fully receive the support of the United States and was ultimately rejected by three of the Central American countries (Honduras, El Salvador, and Costa Rica) in 1986.

Although the Contadora process was not successful, it was continued by President Vinicio Cerezo in his pursuit for peace as president of Guatemala. In 1986, all five Central American rulers attended a series of meetings in Esquipulas, Guatemala. In August 1987, all five countries signed the Esquipulas II Accord, which drew heavily from the previous Contadora Act on Peace and Cooperation. This agreement outlined a framework for the resolution of the current Central American civil wars. Two important components of this accord were an amnesty law and an urgency to disarm rebel groups. The government would then have further peace talks with forces who accepted these terms. The Esquipulas II Accord also created the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), which allowed for a civil influence on the peace process. Although this early accord opened the dialogue for peace in Guatemala, it did not come to a concrete close of the country's internal armed conflict.

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