Long title | An Act to amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to authorize assistance in support of peaceful and democratic processes of development in Central America. |
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Nicknames | Special Central American and Caribbean Assistance Act of 1979 |
Enacted by | the 96th United States Congress |
Effective | May 31, 1980 |
Citations | |
Public law | 96-257 |
Statutes at Large | 94 Stat. 422 |
Codification | |
Acts amended | Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 |
Titles amended | 22 U.S.C.: Foreign Relations and Intercourse |
U.S.C. sections amended |
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Legislative history | |
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Special Central American Assistance Act of 1979 was a United States federal statute established by the 96th United States Congress amending the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. [1] The Caribbean Basin statute appropriated conditions for cultivating civility, democratization, human rights, and non-interventionism in Central America. [2] The Act of Congress endorsed the Organization of American States embodied by Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. The international organization would serve to exemplify multilateralism in pursuance of denouncing left-wing terrorism, political violence, and third world socialism.
During the final months of 1979, the Carter Administration issued affirmative statements to the 96th United States Congress endorsing the proposed Central American assistance legislation providing additional foreign and monetary aid for the affliction of civil disorder in the Americas region. [3] [4] [5] The H.R. 6081 bill was enacted into law by the 39th President of the United States Jimmy Carter on May 31, 1980. [6] [7]
The United States statute's articulation was a consistent Act bolstering the Carter Administration's foreign policy with a prominent emphasis regarding international human rights law during the New Cold War. [8]
The 96th congressional session penned the United States public law 96-257 as three sections citing the amendment and purpose of the Act with section five hundred and thirty-six conveyed as eleven subsections entitled Central American Economic Support.
The Foreign Assistance Act of 1974 described the terms of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights as defined;
The International Security Assistance and Arms Exports Control Act of 1976 acknowledge the international obligations of human rights as endorsed by Title III - General Limitations of the Act passed by the 94th United States Congress. The section amended the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 declaring United States human rights objectives as defined;
The International Development and Food Assistance Act of 1977 mandated annual reports better known as Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. [9] [10] The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor published the human rights reports providing insight concerning global humanitarian affairs for countries receiving United States economic security and national security support as authorized by the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. [11]
United States public laws relative to the Special Central American Assistance Act of 1979 subsequently under the auspices of the International Security and Development Cooperation Act. The United States statutes were endorsed to encourage harmonious international relations with Latin America.
Date of Enactment | Public Law Number | Statute Citation | Legislative Bill | U.S. Presidential Administration |
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August 14, 1979 | P.L. 96-53 | 93 Stat. 359 | H.R. 3324 | Jimmy Carter |
December 16, 1980 | P.L. 96-533 | 94 Stat. 3131 | H.R. 6942 | Jimmy Carter |
December 29, 1981 | P.L. 97-113 | 95 Stat. 1519 | S. 1196 | Ronald Reagan |
August 10, 1982 | P.L. 97-233 | 96 Stat. 260 | H.J.Res. 494 | Ronald Reagan |
July 15, 1983 | P.L. 98-53 | 97 Stat. 287 | H.R. 1271 | Ronald Reagan |
August 8, 1985 | P.L. 99-83 | 99 Stat. 190 | S. 960 | Ronald Reagan |
Depictions of the Latin American Revolution during Cold War
United States Détente for Caribbean Basin Foreign Relations
Central America is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Central America usually consists of seven countries: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. Within Central America is the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot, which extends from northern Guatemala to central Panama. Due to the presence of several active geologic faults and the Central America Volcanic Arc, there is a high amount of seismic activity in the region, such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes which has resulted in death, injury, and property damage.
The Contras were the various U.S.-backed and funded right-wing rebel groups that were active from 1979 to 1990 in opposition to the Marxist Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction Government in Nicaragua, which came to power in 1979 following the Nicaraguan Revolution. Among the separate contra groups, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN) emerged as the largest by far. In 1987, virtually all Contra organizations were united, at least nominally, into the Nicaraguan Resistance.
James Earl Carter Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975, and as a Georgia state senator from 1963 to 1967.
Nicaragua is a nation in Central America. It is located about midway between Mexico and Colombia, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. Nicaragua ranges from the Caribbean Sea on the nation's east coast, and the Pacific Ocean bordering the west. Nicaragua also possesses a series of islands and cays located in the Caribbean Sea.
The Republic of Nicaragua v. The United States of America (1986) was a case where the International Court of Justice (ICJ) held that the U.S. had violated international law by supporting the Contras in their rebellion against the Sandinistas and by mining Nicaragua's harbors. The case was decided in favor of Nicaragua and against the United States with the awarding of reparations to Nicaragua.
The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly known as the School of the Americas, is a United States Department of Defense school located at Fort Moore in Columbus, Georgia, renamed in the 2001 National Defense Authorization Act.
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The Nicaraguan Revolution encompassed the rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the campaign led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) to oust the dictatorship in 1978–79, the subsequent efforts of the FSLN to govern Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, and the Contra War, which was waged between the FSLN-led government of Nicaragua and the United States–backed Contras from 1981 to 1990. The revolution marked a significant period in the history of Nicaragua and revealed the country as one of the major proxy war battlegrounds of the Cold War, attracting much international attention.
The Torrijos–Carter Treaties are two treaties signed by the United States and Panama in Washington, D.C., on September 7, 1977, which superseded the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903. The treaties guaranteed that Panama would gain control of the Panama Canal after 1999, ending the control of the canal that the U.S. had exercised since 1903. The treaties are named after the two signatories, U.S. president Jimmy Carter and the Commander of Panama's National Guard, General Omar Torrijos.
Robert Edward White was an American career diplomat who served as US Ambassador to Paraguay (1977–1980) and to El Salvador (1980–1981). He then became president of the Center for International Policy.
The Salvadoran Civil War was a twelve-year period of civil war in El Salvador that was fought between the government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition or "umbrella organization" of left-wing groups backed by the Cuban regime of Fidel Castro as well as the Soviet Union. A coup on 15 October 1979 followed by government killings of anti-coup protesters is widely seen as the start of civil war. The war did not formally end until 16 January 1992 with the signing of the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City.
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Operation Charly, was allegedly the code-name given to a program during the 1970s and 1980s undertaken by the junta in Argentina with the objective of providing military and counterinsurgency assistance to right-wing dictatorships and insurgents in Central America. According to Noam Chomsky, the operation was either headed by the Argentine military with the agreement of the United States Department of Defense, or was led by the US and used the Argentinians as a proxy.
Jimmy Carter's tenure as the 39th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. A Democrat from Georgia, Carter took office after defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 election. His presidency ended following his defeat in the 1980 election to Republican Ronald Reagan. Aged 98, he is the oldest living, longest-lived and longest-married president, and has the longest post-presidency. He is the third-oldest living former state leader.
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The 1979 Salvadoran coup d’état was a military coup d'état that occurred in El Salvador on 15 October 1979. The coup, led by young military officers, bloodlessly overthrew military President Carlos Humberto Romero and sent him into exile. The National Conciliation Party's firm grasp on power was cut, and in its place, the military established the Revolutionary Government Junta of El Salvador (JRG). The junta was composed of two military officers and three civilians.