ABSTRACT
The 1970s and 1980s were a tumultuous time in Central America. Decades of economic and political marginalization resulted in violent struggles between the status quo and those challenging the system. The victory of the Sandinista Front for National Liberation in Nicaragua gave way to revolutionary rule and costly United States-orchestrated counterrevolution for almost eleven years before its people elected a conservative government more compatible with the whims of Washington. Prolonged armed struggles between revolutionary insurgents and elite-dominated regimes led eventually to comprehensive peace settlements and democratization in El Salvador and Guatemala. Although they avoided armed struggle, Honduras and Costa Rica were strongly buffeted by events taking place in neighboring countries. Clearly the previous quarter century under review brought advances as well as tragedy and problems to Central America. The insurrectionary wars, and especially the US-coordinated reaction to them, cost the lives of well over 300,000 people, mainly innocent civilians.
