ABSTRACT
At the start of the 1990s democracy seemed to be an irreversible trend in the Western Hemisphere. With the ousting of General Manuel Antonio Noriega from power in Panama (December 1989), the January 1991 election of a civilian government in Haiti, and the April 1990 victory of the opposition in Nicaragua only Cuba remained in Latin America as a clearly authoritarian government. Even the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) in Mexico was conceding some defeats at the state level.
