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Disarmament – 1993

The FMLN continued to delay the destruction of the final stockpile of weapons submitted into the beginning of 1993. It announced that it was conditioning the completion of its disarmament upon the Government’s implementation of the Peace Agreements, and the two parties reached an agreement on 4 February 1993. The FMLN destroyed the remainder of its weapons inside El Salvador on 11 February 1993 and completed the destruction of arms outside El Salvador on 1 April 1992. About 3.5% of the total inventory of weapons was reported lost or stolen and not destroyed.¹

The FAES was slow to fulfill its duty to recover military weapons held by private individuals, and ONUSAL expressed doubts that its lists even included the weapons the FAES distributed during the years of conflict.² The recovery of all weapons held by private citizens was delayed by the Legislative Assembly, which was late to pass laws regulating the use and possession of weapons.³

On 23 May 1993 a large cache of weapons was discovered in Managua, Nicaragua. The FMLN later admitted it had kept this and several other secret stashes of weapons both inside and outside El Salvador under the control of a variety of factions, but maintained that they never intended to return to armed conflict. This constituted a serious violation of the Peace Agreements and threatened to sever all trust in the FMLN by the Government and the UN observers. The Government of El Salvador was outraged, and President Cristiani threatened to revoke the FMLN’s status as a legal political party. The UN Security Council expressed serious concerns for the future of the Peace Agreement. The FMLN cooperated with ONUSAL to locate all remaining weapons and begin destroying them.⁴ The FMLN did not meet the deadline of 45 days to destroy the newly discovered weapons, claiming that logistical issues forced them to take more time. A total of 114 arms caches were uncovered both inside and outside El Salvador. ONUSAL verified that they were all finally destroyed on 18 August 1993. The FMLN subsequently declared that its military structure was fully eliminated.⁵

1. “Letter Dated 29 January 1993 from the Secretary-General Addressed to the President of the Security Council,” United Nations Security Council (S/25200) January 29, 1993; “Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador,” United Nations Security Council (S/25812), May 21, 1993.
2. United Nations Security Council, (S/25812).
3. “Further Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador,” United Nations Security Council (S/26790), November 23, 1993.
4. “Further Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL),” United Nations Security Council (S/26005), June 29, 1993.
5. “Further Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL),” United Nations Security Council (S/26371), August 30, 1993.