ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to understand the rural dimensions of the crisis of contemporary Central America properly, one must view political dynamics in their socioeconomic context and from a historical perspective. It summarizes the earlier arguments and findings and to extend their conclusions. The chapter examines the impact of the major agrarian transformations, the sources of peasant mobilization, the responses by the region's governments, and the role of the United States. The quantitative data provided in uphold the numerous descriptive reports from and about the region. Governments have varied in their access to resources with which to meet peasants' demands, especially the primary demand for land. Land distribution was facilitated in Guatemala in the 1950s and in Honduras and Costa Rica up to the mid-1970s by the availability of public lands. The Somoza dynasty had preempted the landowning class from exercising state power.
