ABSTRACT
The appearance of new, popular demands throughout Latin America for the resumption of economic growth and for relief from external debt also characterized 1986. In December, moreover, two of the region's largest economic powers, Brazil and Argentina, signed more than twenty agreements on a series of political and economic issues; these agreements were meant to be the first steps toward a Latin American common market, which possibly would be joined by Uruguay as well. The worrisome level of protest reflected the degree to which economic stagnation has replaced the guerrilla threat as the main Achilles' heel of Salvadoran democracy. The Soviet Union's commitment to Nicaragua was an important part of the Soviet Union's foreign policy in the Third World, but Cuba has remained the centerpiece of Soviet priorities in Latin America. President Raul Alfonsín, Argentina's first civilian president in a decade, strengthened and broadened his popularity through an adroit series of bold political and economic initiatives.
