Central America: Regional Crisis and Alternatives for Peace and Development

Abstract

The United States maintained its hegemony over the region. By contrast, Mexico, whose aspirations of becoming an intermediate power had grown, favored change and increased its political presence in Central America to bolster its international position—particularly with respect to the United States. The panorama of the 1980s was defined by United States efforts to restore its hegemony on a worldwide scale, the deepening economic crisis in the United States and Mexico, and United States constraints on Central America. In the 1980s the economic, social, and political crisis in Central America sharpened. One expression of the renewed efforts to broaden the United States perimeter of relations is the construction of a North American common market. A projection of the current trend, the contradictions of the situation notwithstanding, indicates a strong North American bloc with close ties to Latin America and the Pacific, with the participation of Japan.