ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the practice of US economic statecraft toward Central America through the lenses of a "thick" economic statecraft approach; it is divided into three main sections, each corresponding to the sub-period established in the introduction (1971-1989, 1990-2000, 2001-2016) and a concluding section. The chapter reviews both regular and contentious moments in the political economy of Central America-U.S. economic relations. Among the instances examined are Washington's policy of economic coercion toward Sandinista Nicaragua, the creation of the one-way free trade program known as Caribbean Basin Initiative, the subdued foreign economic policy toward the region in the 1990s, and the negotiations leading to the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). The cases reviewed illustrate not only the fluid nature of US power over the isthmus, but also how its relational nature and authoritative components operate.
