Contadora Group

The Contadora Group was an initiative of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela and Panama to resolve the military conflict in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala in the early 1980s. This conflict threatened to destabilize the whole of Central America.

Foundation

The origin of the initiative came from the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme and Nobel laureates Gabriel García Márquez, Alfonso García Robles and Alva Myrdal, Nobel laureate from that in a call to the President of Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela and Panama calling on this, as a mediator in to cast the conflict. Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Uruguay later formed the Contadora Support Group.

Work

For the first time the group met in 1983 on the belonging to the Pearl Islands Contadora Island (Panama). On October 15, 1984, the Contadora Document should be signed. However, this did not happen because interventionierender negotiations with the United States and other governments, Honduras Central America. Their work led to the 1987 peace agreements nevertheless of Esquipulas (also Arias Sánchez -Plan), was awarded for the Óscar Arias Sánchez with the Nobel Prize.

Effect

The formed in 1986 Rio Group ( platform for common foreign policy ) came out of the Contadora Group and of the Contadora Support Group. The triple (Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela) for Economic Cooperation followed as an initiative of the Contadora Group.

This associative foreign policy led to increased dialogue within Latin America and beyond in extrazonal integration forums, for example, in terms of the relationship with Europe.

UNESCO recognized the work of the Contadora Group in 1985 with the award of the Simón Bolívar Prize. The group had given a commitment to end the suffering of the population of Central America to ensure that each of the people can exercise their right to dignity and independence and to find a solution to a conflict with his persistence the prospect of peace in the world would have seriously compromised.