Understanding Central America

Since the 1960s, political violence and war in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala have taken 300,000 lives, displaced millions, and reversed decades of economic gains. Progress towards peace has been made since 1989 as the years of war have changed the politics of conflict in the region and in Washington. This third edition explores the origins and development of Central America's political conflicts and efforts to resolve them. It includes an analysis of the 1992 Salvadoran peace accord, the 1996 Nicaraguan national election and prospects for consolidation of democracy in Nicaragua, and Guatemala's troubled transition toward greater democracy, as well as a new chapter that examines how US foreign policy during the 1970s and 1980s was shaped by the Cold War. The authors trace the roots of under-development and crisis in the region by examining the shared and individual histories of the individual nations.