Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 October 2022
Since the mid-1970s, tens of thousands of persons in three out of the five Central American countries have revolted against their governments or fought to repress such rebellions. These conflicts have cost more than a quarter of a million lives and created more than two million internal and external refugees. In 1979 a bloody insurrection toppled Nicaragua's Somoza regime. El Salvador's crippling civil war has escalated and reescalated but remains stalemated. In Guatemala since 1980, brutal counterinsurgency warfare, pro-regime terror, and political reform have failed to eliminate a resurgent guerrilla rebellion. Yet while these countries have rent themselves with political violence, their neighbors Honduras and Costa Rica have in general remained politically peaceful.
This article is an extensively revised version of a paper presented at the International Congress of Americanists in Manchester, England, 6–10 September 1982. Support for further research was provided in part by 1984 and 1986 faculty research grants from the University of North Texas. Excellent comments on earlier drafts by Carlos Vilas, Mitch Seligson, Tom Walker, Gil Merkx, Cynthia Chalker, several anonymous LAR reviewers, and others are gratefully acknowledged.