Activities of Secretary-General in El Salvador, 15-17 January
On Thursday, 15 January, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon flew from Copán Ruinas in Honduras to San Salvador, El Salvador, to attend the twenty-third anniversary of the peace agreements that put an end to civil war in the country.
Upon arrival, the Secretary-General was greeted by Hugo Roger Martínez Bonilla, Minister for Foreign Affairs of El Salvador. He then met with the United Nations staff working in the country.
On Friday, 16 January, he exchanged views with civil society representatives before meeting with El Salvador President Salvador Sánchez Cerén. They discussed the inclusive dialogue structure put in place by the President as well as economic and human rights issues, particularly the need for greater women’s empowerment and the Government’s recently launched five-year development plan.
The two leaders then held a joint press conference, during which the Secretary-General said he was deeply concerned about the level of citizen insecurity and violence throughout Central America and in El Salvador, and pledged United Nations support to the National Council on Citizen Security and Coexistence.
The Secretary-General then participated in the Opening Ceremony of the twenty-third commemorative anniversary of the peace agreements. He celebrated the courage and wisdom of Salvadoran leaders and the Salvadoran people to choose the road of peace. He added that the agreements remind us that peace is a process that must be built every day and that citizen insecurity, social exclusion and lack of opportunities prevented many Salvadorans from reaping the full dividends of peace. (See Press Release SG/SM/16464.)
The Secretary-General then had a working luncheon with Foreign Affairs Minister Martínez Bonilla, before addressing the National Assembly. In his speech to the Assembly, he encouraged representatives to revive a new spirit of unity and solidarity and work to deepen reconciliation within Salvadoran society. (See Press Release SG/SM/16465.)
The Secretary-General then met with the President of the Assembly, Sigfrido Othon Reyes-Morales, and parliamentary leaders, as well as with Oscar Armando Pineda-Navas, President of the Supreme Court of El Salvador, and magistrates.
In the evening, the Secretary-General visited the crypt of Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, a human rights defender assassinated in 1980. A State dinner was then given in his honour by the President of El Salvador.
On Saturday, 17 January, the Secretary-General met with David Ernesto Morales-Cruz, El Salvador’s Ombudsman, and visited the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Joya de Cerén.
He also visited a violence reduction joint programme in San Salvador, where he had a working luncheon with members of the National Council for Citizen Security and Coexistence.
On his way to the airport, he stopped to taste pupusas, one of El Salvador’s delicacies. He arrived in New York that evening.