The 28th anniversary of the Peace Accords this year was marked by government silence as the Executive did not organise any commemorative events

President Bukele calls El Salvador's Peace Accords a "farce”

photo_camera AFP/YURI CORTEZ  - The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, on 26 May 2020

El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said Thursday that the Peace Accords, which put an end to 12 years of civil war (1980-1992), are a "farce" just like the internal armed conflict.

"The war was a farce (...) they killed 75,000 people between the two sides (the guerrillas and the army), including the 1,000 from (the massacre of) El Mozote, and it was a farce just like the Peace Accords," Bukele said during an event at the El Mozote Farmhouse Educational Complex.

"They were a farce (the Peace Accords). A farce, a negotiation between two leaders, but what benefit did the Peace Accords bring to the Salvadoran people? they were signed on January 16, 1992, and what did they gain? what did the Salvadoran people gain? He added: "We had security, no. We had social development, justice, investment in education, health, was there anything, no". "Why, if they were so good, it didn't bring any benefits to the Salvadoran people," he added.

The 28th anniversary of the Peace Accords this year was marked by the silence of the Nayib Bukele government, as the executive did not organise any official events to remember the thousands of dead and missing.

For the first time, at least in the last ten years, the current government did not call on the signatories of the former guerrilla group of the now-opposition Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN, left) or the government of former president Alfredo Cristiani (1989-1994) to commemorate the end of the conflict.

Bukele, who came to power under the banner of the right-wing Great Alliance for National Unity (GANA), said after winning the elections in February 2019 that his arrival in power symbolised the end of the post-war era. "We have only five years, not to turn the page on the post-war era, not to defeat the two-party system, we have already done those things. We have five years to make El Salvador an example to the world," he said at the June 1 inauguration ceremony.

The Salvadoran civil war left at least 75,000 people dead and 8,000 missing.

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