• Country/entity

  El Salvador
  

• Region

  Americas
  

• Agreement name

  General Agenda and Timetable for the Comprehensive Negotiating Process, Caracas

• Date

  21 May 1990

• Agreement status

  Multiparty signed/agreed

• Interim arrangement

  Yes

• Agreement/conflict level

  Intrastate/intrastate conflict ( El Salvador Civil War (1979 - 1992) )

• Stage

  Pre-negotiation/process

• Conflict nature

  Government

• Peace process

  El Salvador peace process

• Parties

  Representing the Government of El Salvador: (Signed) Colonel Juan A. MARTINEZ VARELA; (Signed) Mr. Oscar Alfredo SANTAMARIA; (Signed) Colonel Mauricio Ernesto VARGAS; (Signed) Mr. Abelardo TORRES; (Signed) Mr. David ESCOBAR GALINDO; (Signed) Mr. Rafael HERNAN CONTRERAS;
  
  Representing the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional:​ (Signed) Commander Schafik HANDAL; (Signed) Commander Eduardo SANCHO;(Signed) Ana Guadelupe MARTINEZ; (Signed) Salvador SAMAYOA; (Signed) Dagoberto GUTIERREZ; (Signed) Marta VALLADARES; (Signed) Roberto CANAS;

• Third parties

  (Signed) Alvaro de SOTO, Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations;

• Description

  Initial objective to achieve political agreements for halt to armed confrontation and any acts that infringe rights of civilians, including agreement on armed forces; human rights; judicial system; electoral system; constitutional reform; economic and social issues; and verification by the UN. Agenda also to include establishment of necessary guarantees and conditions for reintegrating members of the FMLN into civilian institutional and political life, and agreements for the consolidation of the objectives of earlier Geneva Agreement. Agreed on schedule and set deadline for achievement of initial paragraph 1 of the Geneva Agreement, for middle of September. Agreed agenda for future negotiations to halt armed confrontation and achieve political agreements; agreement on topics to all into first, second and third phase of negotiations, respectively

• Agreement document

  SV_900521_General Agenda and Timetable for the Comprehensive Negotiating Process, Caracas.pdf | Download PDF

Groups

Gender

State definition

Governance

Power sharing

Human rights and equality

Rights related issues

Rights institutions

Justice sector reform

Socio-economic reconstruction

Land, property and environment

Security sector

Transitional justice

Implementation

ANNEX

General agenda and timetable for the comprehensive negotiating process

A. GENERAL AGENDA

I. The initial objective shall be to reach political agreements which lay the basis for a cessation of the armed conflict and of any acts that infringe the rights of the civilian population, which will have to be verified by the United Nations, subject to the approval of the Security Council.

(a) First:

Political agreements

Armed forces

Human rights

Judicial system

Electoral system

Constitutional reform

Economic and social issues

Verification by the United Nations

(b) Second:

Cessation of the armed conflict and of any acts that infringe the rights of the civilian population

II. Establishment of the necessary guarantees and conditions for reintegrating the members of FMLN, within a framework of full legality, into the civil, institutional and political life of the country.

Armed forces

Human rights

Judicial system

Electoral system

Constitutional reform

Economic and social issues

Reintegration of FMLN members

Verification by the United Nations

III. Final agreements for the consolidation of the objectives of the Geneva Agreement and verification, where appropriate, by the United Nations.

Note:

The sequence of the items listed for each phase does not imply a strict order of consideration and may be changed by mutual consent.

Agreements must be tailored to the nature of the phase involved.

Political issues have been placed in their respective phases but, given the complexity of some of them, aspects thereof may be addressed in other phases.

All this depends on the dynamic of the negotiations.

B. TIMETABLE

In the light of the general agenda for the comprehensive negotiating process set forth in the preceding section, the Government of El Salvador and FMLN agree that the initial objective set forth in paragraph 1 of the Geneva Agreement of 4 April 1990 should be achieved by the middle of September 1990, provided that agreements are reached which are synchronized, have implementation timetables and can be verified where appropriate, so as to ensure that all the components of the initial objective are duly coordinated.

This deadline would offer the additional advantage of helping to ensure that a legislative and municipal electoral process is conducted in an atmosphere of tranquillity, broad participation and freedom from intimidation.

It is difficult to set a fixed date for the conclusion of the comprehensive process.

This will depend on factors that cannot be weighed at the present time, such as the extent and scope of the political agreements reched under paragraph I, which are a matter of negotiation, and the relationship between the negotiations and the electoral process.

There is also a possibility that the initial objective may be achieved before the deadline.

For these reasons, the conclusion of the process should be envisaged not in terms of dates but rather in terms of a given number of months after the achievement of the initial objective:

tentatively, two to six months.

On the basis of the above understandings, the Government and FMLN shall, as their first substantive priority, concentrate on negotiating the political agreements envisaged under the initial objective.

Representing the Government of El Salvador:

(Signed)

Colonel Juan A. MARTINEZ VARELA

(Signed)

Mr. Oscar Alfredo SANTAMARIA

(Signed)

Colonel Mauricio Ernesto VARGAS

(Signed)

Mr. Abelardo TORRES

(Signed)

Mr. David ESCOBAR GALINDO

(Signed)

Mr. Rafael HERNAN CONTRERAS

Representing the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional:​

(Signed)

Commander Schafik HANDAL

(Signed)

Commander Eduardo SANCHO

(Signed)

Ana Guadelupe MARTINEZ

(Signed)

Salvador SAMAYOA

(Signed)

Dagoberto GUTIERREZ

(Signed)

Marta VALLADARES

(Signed)

Roberto CANAS

(Signed) Alvaro de SOTO

Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations