UN Observers in Haiti

It is nine o'clock in the morning at the La Kiatara Camp in the Honduran Mosquito Coast, near the Nicaraguan border, on 16 April 1990. It is a historic day. In a solemn, sober atmosphere the ceremony begins with a prayer and some straightforward speeches. One of the members of the Nicaraguan Resistance, Major Ceferino Bonze, comes forward and stretches out his arms to hand over his rifle to the UN representative.

The right sleeve of the soldier receiving the weapon displays the word "Spain" and, underneath it, a small red and golden flag. The soldier is Spanish Major General Agustín Quesada Gómez who, as the commander of the United Nations Observer Group in Central America (ONUCA), has led the first UN peacekeeping operation in this region of the world, which has been plagued by violence for the last decade.