ABSTRACT
Under Presidents Portillo and de la Madrid, Mexico was revolutionary Nicaragua's most faithful supporter and ally in the hemisphere. Guatemala's leaders pursued an independent and neutralist policy toward revolutionary Nicaragua and conflicts in Central America. For the military regime in Honduras, Sandinista revolution came at a time when it was also facing potential economic and social crises at home. Above and beyond intense US pressure on these states to reject the Sandinista regime, traditional political sectors had their own reasons for fearing the Nicaraguan revolutionary model of popular hegemony and non-alignment. The scene was set for a large Honduran role in US policy not only toward Nicaragua and El Salvador in the 1980s but also in longer-term US military planning for Latin America and the Caribbean. Costa Rica had earned a reputation for maintaining among the most open political systems in Latin America. Western Europe provided the bulk of the $20 million financing for Nicaragua's heralded literacy campaign in 1980.
