On January 16, 1992, the Plaza Cívica in downtown San Salvador overflowed with a festive crowd, many carrying FMLN flags or wearing FMLN bandanas or headbands. Enormous banners proclaiming support for the FMLN and other insurgent organizations hung from the National Palace and the cathedral. At noon the cathedral bells tolled in the peace, shortly before the signing in Mexico of the agreement that ended more than a decade of war. One of the FMLN's clandestine radio stations broadcast the speeches and music from the cathedral. Many in the plaza, including some members of the FMLN's General Command and several regional commanders, had not been seen in the capital for more than a decade. I saw a number of reunions of people separated by the vagaries of the war, including one in which both had believed the other dead for years. Between blaring dance numbers, speakers celebrated the peace agreement as an insurgent victory, reiterating the theme that the FMLN had forced the government to negotiate a transition to democracy, allowing political participation of the left for the first time.

Two blocks away in the Parque de la Libertad, the governing ARENA party celebrated its own interpretation of the signing, lauding the contributions of President Alfredo Cristiani to freedom, peace, and the successful defense of the country from communism.