1st U.N. Peace Troops Arrive in Central America

The first members of an unarmed U.N. peacekeeping force have arrived in Central America as fighting continues to rage and the region’s presidents prepare for further peace talks.

The U.N. force, which eventually is to consist of about 260 military observers, is to monitor accords calling for the end of assistance by regional governments to “irregular” forces operating in the region.

Among the first arrivals were officers from Spain, Venezuela, Ireland and Canada.

The force is being deployed at a time of continued rebellion in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Guatemala, the region’s most populous nation, has been the scene of intermittent guerrilla conflict for decades.

Similar U.N. peacekeeping teams have been deployed elsewhere in the world, including parts of the Middle East, Asia and Africa, but U.N. officials say this will be the first such large-scale effort in Latin America.

“We hope to fulfill the mission of peace that has been asked of us,” Gen. Agustin Quesada Gomez, the Spanish officer who heads the mission, said in an arrival statement.

The mission personnel, in trademark powder-blue berets, are widely seen as a critical element in attempts to achieve a lasting peace in Central America.

The operation, which will cost roughly $41 million for the first six months, will be based in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, but will have offices in the capitals of all five countries involved--El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Guatemala in addition to Honduras.

The force will consist of 33 observation posts to be situated at sites still to be determined, plus a number of mobile units. The personnel, as in all such U.N. undertakings, will carry no weapons.

At the observers’ disposal, officials said, will be at least a dozen helicopters, a fixed-wing aircraft, eight navy vessels and a variety of vehicles. The navy craft will monitor activities in the Gulf of Fonseca, an alleged channel for arms shipments from Nicaragua to insurgents in El Salvador.

Total mission personnel is expected to exceed 600, including observers, administrators, medical, communications and other support personnel.

Regional governments have promised to cooperate with the mission, giving its personnel “complete freedom of movement without restrictions,” according to a U.N. statement.

The force’s principal mission, the U.N. statement said, will be to attempt to ensure that no country is used as a base of aggression against another.

The observers’ deployment is the result of continuing peace-seeking efforts by the Central American leaders, who last met in August at the Honduran port of Tela. They are scheduled to meet again Sunday and Monday in Costa Rica.