# The Esquipulas II Peace Accord (1987)

URL: https://allhistories.com/nicaragua/timeline/1987-the-esquipulas-ii-peace-accord
Location: Guatemala City, Guatemala
Themes: main-event

After the Contadora process stalled, the Central American presidents met at Esquipulas in Guatemala in May 1986. In February 1987 Costa Rica's president Óscar Arias presented a peace plan that, unlike earlier proposals, treated democratisation and national reconciliation as conditions for peace. The weakening of the Reagan administration by the Iran–Contra scandal gave the plan space. On 7 August 1987, in Guatemala City, Vinicio Cerezo of Guatemala, José Napoleón Duarte of El Salvador, José Azcona of Honduras, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and Arias signed the 'Procedure for the Establishment of a Firm and Lasting Peace in Central America'. Each government agreed to seek ceasefires with its armed opponents, decree amnesties, create a National Reconciliation Commission, lift states of emergency, guarantee press freedom and political pluralism, hold free elections, and stop supporting insurgents in neighbouring states or allowing its territory to be used against them. An international commission was to verify compliance. In Nicaragua the accord led to the reopening of La Prensa and Radio Católica in October 1987, the formation of a Reconciliation Commission under Cardinal Obando y Bravo, an amnesty, and the lifting of the state of emergency in January 1988. Arias received the Nobel Peace Prize in October 1987. Esquipulas II became the foundation of the peace processes in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. At this point in the timeline (7 August 1987), the President of Nicaragua was Daniel Ortega (10 January 1985 – 25 April 1990).

## Why it matters
Esquipulas II was the regional agreement that set Central America on the path to ending its civil wars.

Ruler at the Time: [Daniel Ortega](https://allhistories.com/nicaragua/rulers/daniel-ortega)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Esquipulas Peace Agreement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esquipulas_Peace_Agreement)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Esquipulas Accords](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Esquipulas+Accords)
- [US Office of the Historian — Central America, 1981–1993](https://history.state.gov/milestones/1981-1988/central-america)
- [Wikipedia — Sandinista Revolution And Contra War (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaraguan_Revolution)