Editing Contadora group

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{more citations needed|date=September 2014}}
[[File:Grupo Contadora.png|thumb|Member countries of the Contadora group.]]
The '''Contadora Group''' was an initiative launched in the early 1980s by the foreign ministers of Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela to deal with the [[Central American crisis]] (military conflicts in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala), which were threatening to destabilize the entire [[Central America]]n region.

The original stimulus for the initiative was a call by Swedish Prime Minister [[Olof Palme]] and [[Nobel Prize|Nobel]] laureates [[Gabriel García Márquez]], [[Alfonso García Robles]] and [[Alva Myrdal]] for the presidents of Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela and Panama
to act as mediators in the conflicts.

The group first met on [[Pearl Islands|Contadora Island]] (Panama) in 1983.
The initiative drew international attention to Central America's conflicts and pressured for a softening of the [[militarism|militarist]] stance of the United States in the region.
The peace plan was supported by the [[United Nations Security Council]], the [[United Nations General Assembly|General Assembly]] and many regional and international bodies.

In September 1983, mediated by the Contadora group, the foreign ministers of the Central American countries adopted a Document of Objectives in Panama City. 
This document declared their intent to promote democratization and to end armed conflict in the region, to act in compliance with international law, to revitalize and restore economic development and co-operation in Central America, and to negotiate better access to international markets.

A year later, in September 1984, the Contadora Act on Peace and Co-operation in Central America was also presented. 
This document included a range of detailed commitments to peace, democratization, regional security and economic co-operation. 
It also provided for regional committees to evaluate and verify compliance with these commitments.

The following year, representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Peru and [[Uruguay]] met in Lima and created the [[Contadora support group]].

The Contadora Act was tentatively approved by the Central American presidents, but did not gain the crucial backing of the United States due to its ''de facto'' recognition of the government of Nicaragua. The United States was also not supportive of the plan because it prohibited unilateral action by the US in protection of its interests. Moreover, the US succeeded in blocking in the plan any recourse to the [[International Court of Justice|World Court]] and [[United Nations]] as required by international law.

A revised version of the accord failed to assuage the objections raised and was finally laid to rest with its formal rejection by [[Costa Rica]], El Salvador and [[Honduras]] in June 1986.<ref>Tribune Magazine Archive, 16 November 1984 "How the Contadora peace-plan was ambushed":http://archive.tribunemagazine.co.uk/article/16th-november-1984/6/how-the-contadora-peace---pl-n-was-ambushed {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811125823/http://archive.tribunemagazine.co.uk/article/16th-november-1984/6/how-the-contadora-peace---pl-n-was-ambushed |date=11 August 2020 }}</ref>

While the Contadora group ultimately failed to establish a credible peace formula with the backing of all regional governments, it did lay the foundations for such a plan to emerge in subsequent years. 
Under the leadership of Costa Rican president [[Óscar Arias Sánchez|Óscar Arias]], the so-called [[Esquipulas Peace Agreement]] emerged from the remains of Contadora in 1986 and led to a fundamental reshaping of Central American politics.

==See also==
*[[Confidence-building measures in Central America]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation}}
{{Pan-Americanism}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:International organizations based in the Americas]]
[[Category:Foreign relations of Colombia]]
[[Category:Foreign relations of Mexico]]
[[Category:Foreign relations of Panama]]
[[Category:Foreign relations of Venezuela]]
[[Category:Organizations established in 1983]]
[[Category:International Simón Bolívar Prize recipients]]