Booth John A. - Understanding Central America: Global Forces, Rebellion, and Change

UNDERSTANDING CENTRAL AMERICA

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Designed by Linda Mark

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Booth, John A., 1946

Understanding Central America: global forces, rebellion, and change / John A. Booth, Christine J. Wade, Thomas W Walker. Sixth edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8133-4959-6 (e-book)

1. Central AmericaHistory19511979. 2. Central AmericaHistory1979 3. Political stabilityCentral AmericaHistory20th century. 4. DemocratizationCentral AmericaHistory20th century. 5. Social conflictCentral AmericaHistory20th century. 6. RevolutionsCentral AmericaHistory20th century. I. Wade, Christine J. II. Walker, Thomas W., 1940 III. Title.

F1439.B66 2014

972.8052dc23

2014005228

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Patti, to Greg, and to Anne

CONTENTS

TABLES

FIGURES

FOR THIS, THE TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OFUnderstanding Central Americas first edition in 1989, we have again extensively updated the volume. For the fourth and fifth editions, multiple transformations of the regionthe formal democratization of several countries, the end of several civil wars, and the adoption of new, neoliberal economic development modelsrequired a major rearrangement of the book. This sixth edition follows the same organization as the fourth and fifth but contains extensively updated country chapters to incorporate developments up through early 2014, including elections in Honduras (2013), and Costa Rica and El Salvador (early 2014). , on political participation and public opinion, integrates new survey data on the region from 2012, and traces trends in behavior and attitudes from the 1990s. We have added new figures and updated tables on trends in politics, economics, social conditions, and election outcomes through March of 2014.

WE OWE MANY PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS IN CENTRAL AMERICA and the United States our sincerest thanks for their time, support, and encouragement. For fieldwork support over the decades while our book was written and repeatedly updated, we thank the Latin American Studies Association; the Advisory Council on Church and Society of the United Presbyterian Church, USA; the Inter-American Dialogue; the International Human Rights Law Group; the Washington Office on Latin America; Hemispheric Initiatives; Alice McGrath; the University of North Texas; the Heinz Foundation, University of Pittsburgh; Ohio University; Washington College and the Louis L. Goldstein Program in Public Affairs; and the Carter Center. For collaboration in Central America we gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales and the Centro Superior Universitaria Centroamericana in Costa Rica, the Asociacin y Estudios Sociales (ASIES) in Guatemala, and the Confederacin Nacional de Profesionales Hroes y Mrtires in Nicaragua. We thank the United Presbyterian Church, USA, for granting Thomas Walker the right to reuse some material he originally wrote for a Presbyterian Church publication (incorporated into Chapters , and most recently the 2012 AmericasBarometer surveys. For the underwriting acquisition of the 2008 AmericasBarometer surveys we thank Professor T. David Mason, the Elizabeth Rhodes Peace Research Fund, and the Johnie Christian Family Peace Professor Endowment of the University of North Texas.

Dozens of kind Central Americans have granted us interviews and helped us collect data on their countries. Without them this book would have been impossible to write. E. Bradford Burns, Richard E. Clinton Jr., Sung Ho Kim, Harold Molineu, Mitch Seligson, and several anonymous reviewers read portions of the manuscript at different stages in its evolution through all six editions and made valuable suggestions. Our thanks to Cece Hannah for typing the first-edition manuscript, to Steve Lohse for research assistance on the second edition, to Mehmet Gurses and Nikolai Petrovsky for research assistance on the fourth edition, and to Brittany Weaver for research assistance on the sixth edition. Ryan Salzman provided valuable bibliographic research assistance for the fifth edition. Over time several editors at Westview Press encouraged us along the way. We especially thank Miriam Gilbert and Barbara Ellington for their assistance and guidance during work on the first two editions, Karl Yambert and Jennifer Chen for their efforts on the third, Steve Catalano and Kay Mariea for their help with the fourth, Karl Yambert and Sandra Beris for their support on the fifth, and Kelli Fillingim for assistance with the sixth.

John A. Booth

Christine J. Wade

Thomas W. Walker

Abbreviations of countries:

CR = Costa Rica; ES = El Salvador; G = Guatemala; H = Honduras; N = Nicaragua