ABSTRACT
United States (US) proximity and the gross disparities in population and wealth between the region's major hegemon and its tiny neighbors have long allowed US policy to shape the region, sometimes to Central Americans' detriment. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviets ended in 1990, and Central America's revolutionary-counterrevolutionary conflicts ended in 1996. US fears of Communist-inspired uprisings and subversion accordingly waned, and the United States scaled back its intervention in the region. The end of the Cold War facilitated peace and democracy in the region. The US imperative shifted from fighting Communism to promoting the so-called Washington Consensus and democratization. Although there was support for democratic transitions in the 1990s, evidence clearly demonstrates Washington's preference for "low-intensity democracy". The emerging war on the terrorism-drug-gang nexus created a climate of insecurity that further endangered the region's democracies, all in an attempt to make the region safe for investment.
