The civil war in El Salvador, once the subject of intense concern in Washington, vanished from the American agenda as soon as it became clear that the Cold War was over. Without the worry of Soviet inroads in the United States` backyard, the outcome became a minor issue at best.
But even though the conflict no longer counts for anything in global terms, it counts for a great deal in the lives of Salvadorans. For them, the accord reached on New Year`s Day to end the 12-year-old war is an event that could prove thoroughly transforming. But that prospect will be realized only if the two sides are truly ready to confine their rivalry to the political arena of a democracy, something with no real precedent in Salvadoran history. The end of the Cold War, which made El Salvador`s fate largely unimportant to the rest of the world, also made this agreement possible. The government and the communist guerrillas have fought to a bloody stalemate that has killed some 75,000 people. With continuing outside support, each might have retained some hope of winning decisively on the battlefield.
But the U.S. is eager to be done with the expense and controversy of shoring up the Salvadoran government; there is no longer a Soviet Union backing leftist liberation movements, and Fidel Castro is too broke to spend money on arms for Salvadoran rebels. So each side apparently saw that it has little to gain from more bloodshed.
The agreement reached at the United Nations calls for a complete cease-fire on Feb. 1, to be followed by the disbanding of the rebel army and a 50 percent cut in the size of the Salvadoran army. Internal security will be turned over to a civilian police force and land reform will be carried out. Some issues have yet to be settled, but if they aren`t resolved by Jan. 10, the UN will have the power to decide them.
Past Salvadoran accords have led nowhere, and there is no assurance that right-wing extremists in the military will quietly accept letting the rebels compete for power. But thanks to this agreement, 1992 looks brighter than any Salvadoran year in a long time.
