The countries of Central America, a region of great natural beauty, have long been characterized by inequality, poverty and poor governance. From the 1960s through the 1980s, popular social movements and guerrilla insurgencies developed in response to a lack of political space, brutal repression and tremendous inequality and poverty. Operating within a Cold War framework, the United States provided economic and military assistance to oppressive governments in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, and trained and armed the contra forces to overthrow the revolutionary Sandinista regime that came to power in Nicaragua in the 1980s. Several hundred thousand people, mostly civilians, died in these wars. A regional peace process, spearheaded by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, paved the way for separate peace accords in Guatemala and El Salvador and a gradual end to the war in Nicaragua.

Following the wars of the 1980s, US policy took a more positive direction, funding peace accord implementation and reconstruction programs in Guatemala and El Salvador, and providing development and disaster-relief to address a series of devastating natural disasters, including earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and drought.

The Latin America Working Group, then the Central America Working Group, focused intensively in the 1980s on opposing military aid to the Guatemalan and Salvadoran militaries and the Nicaraguan contras, and promoting a negotiated end to the conflict. In the 1990s, LAWG has led successful efforts to promote substantial, constructive US aid for peace accord implementation and post-war reconstruction. LAWG helped to organize efforts that led to the declassification of thousands of US documents on human rights violations in the region, which fed into the process of reconciliation and truth commissions in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The Working Group also led initiatives that resulted in approximately $1 billion dollars worth of US disaster relief for Hurricane Mitch, the Salvadoran earthquakes, and subsequent droughts.

For Central America, the promises of the various peace accords, for more equitable societies, with justice for all, have not yet been reached. Latin America Working Group efforts in the region aim to promote full implementation of the region's peace accords, establishment of sound justice systems, and more equitable, sustainable development. We continue to urge the United States government to emphasize aid for sustainable development rather than military spending for countries where civilian control of the military remains tenuous and problems of poverty are stark.

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Guatemala page

Nicaragua page

CAFTA and Central America

Honduran News in Review, March 2006

TPS Extended for Salvadorans, Hondurans, and Nicaraguans