Confidence-building Measures in Central America - Early 1990s

Early 1990s

The significance of CBMs in Central America in the early 1990s was highlighted at the July 1991 San Salvador presidential summit, when the Hondurans floated their comprehensive disarmament and confidence-building proposal (a "Central American Security Treaty") which would set ceilings on military inventories and troops. The Honduran proposal had a heavy emphasis on confidence-building measures as a way of diminishing the possibility of inter-state conflicts. These confidence-building measures would include a pledge by the Central American nations to forsake the use of force to settle disputes, and a commitment from the U.S. not to support irregular movements (i.e., the Contras) in Central America. The proposal also included suggestions of new tasks for the armed forces, such as involvement in the control of drugs and protection of natural resources. Some of the Honduran ideas found an echo in the speeches made at the Ibero-American Summit which followed immediately afterwards, including Peruvian President Fujimori's proposal for a disarmed Latin America .

By 1992 the notion of confidence-building measures was firmly imbedded in Central American thinking about disarmament and lowering of tensions. A number of such measures were included in the Honduran security proposal, and the Esquipulas Security Commission mentioned several others in its various reports to the Central American presidents. For example, in June 1991 plans were announced for the establishment of a formal "hot line" which would provide secure and immediate telephone links between the presidents of the five Central American nations plus Panama. Thus, one of the features of the long Contadora/Esquipulas process was the way in which it greatly increased communication between the Central American countries, and especially its presidents, foreign ministers, and senior military officials. This confidence-building measure, along with many others, was an important legacy of the peace process of the 1980s.

In June 1991 the OAS General Assembly, meeting in Santiago, Chile, authorized the creation of a "Working Group on Cooperation for Hemisphere Security". In February 1992 a draft Committee document revealed the non-traditional nature of its focus as it defined a "Broad Security Concept" which would include such items as: cooperation for security; confidence-building mechanisms to strengthen security; democratic stability; human rights; economic security; protection of the environment; critical poverty; non-proliferation and control of unconventional weapons; transparency in arms transfers; non-intervention; and cooperation in the struggle against drugs. The specific references to "confidence-building mechanisms" and "transparency in arms transfers" are clear indications of the significance of CBMs in contemporary Latin American thinking on security issues.