[1] With an estimated 100,000 land mines buried across Central America, mainly in Nicaragua, there was grave concern over their location and removal or deactivation as the Cold War began to wind down.
The primary responsibility for the program lay with the OAS' Unit for the Promotion of Democracy, with the IADB providing technical support and planning assistance.
[citation needed] Around 1960s both the governments of the United States and rebels in Cuba placed close to 50,000 land mine devices in a 17-mile strip surrounding the military base at Guantanamo Bay.
[citation needed] Following the signing of a peace agreement in Guatemala, the OAS provided assistance in developing a mine and unexploded ordnance clearance program, which was launched in 1998.
Operations in Guatemala are somewhat unusual within the OAS program, as the primary threat comes from the approximately 8,000 unexploded devices, including mortar and artillery shells, aerial bombs and hand grenades, which are scattered throughout Guatemalan territory.
The clearance process requires extensive cooperation among the three operational components, as well as a concerted effort to communicate with the population of affected zones in order to locate and destroy hazardous items.
[4] After having cleared over 179,000 anti-personnel mines from its territory and half a million pieces of unexploded ordnance, Nicaragua declared itself free of landmines in 2010.