The situation in El Salvador in 1990–1991 was characterized by a continuing civil war and hopes for peace that culminated in intense UN-sponsored talks. These achieved a cease-fire agreement in a December 1991 New Year's Eve "Act of New York" which expanded the original ONUSAL ("United Nations Observer Group in El Salvador") established Security Council Resolution 693, whose limited mission was restricted to monitoring human rights, and converted it into a new major UN verification and observation mission. Contra demobilization in Nicaragua provided a useful precedent for FMLN demobilization in El Salvador.