Spanish is spoken by a significant part of the population in Mexico; in the Central American states of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama; on the Caribbean islands of Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico (whose special status will be discussed in Chapter 12); and in the South American states of Colombia, Venezuela, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador (see Map 2.1). In some cases this involves the large majority of the population, in others the significance lies in the fact that it is the language of the elites.