Confidence-building Measures in Central America - The Role of CBMs

The Role of CBMs

The significance of peacekeeping and CBMs in the Central American peace process was a double one: not only did these two approaches contribute to the solution of the conflict, they also served as examples of the value of these two approaches to other Latin American conflict situations, and were indications of how the Hemisphere's military institutions might use these notions as new roles in the changing environment of the post-Cold War. Further, one Latin nation (Venezuela) provided ONUCA (UN Observer Group in Central America) with a battalion of infantry at the key moment of Contra demobilization in mid-1990; Argentina provided patrol boats to monitor the Gulf of Fonseca (where El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua abut). Several other American nations (Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico) provided military observers and other support for ONUCA and ONUSAL (UN Observer Group in El Salvador).