Prior to the 1980s Honduras was an obscure backwater, of little public or policy concern in the United States. With the advent of the Reagan administration, however, Honduras became a launching pad for the administration's contra was against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua and for counterinsurgency operations in El Salvador. Placing events i

A detailed examination of the roots of revolution and counterrevolution in Central America and the Caribbean, this book draws on the research of an interdisciplinary team of noted scholars. The authors give special attention to the institutional and structural causes of stability and instability—in particular, the traditional role of the United States; the current economic crisis; the changing role of the Roman Catholic church; the influence of the military and security forces, the oligarchy, and the business sector; the problems of instituting socioeconomic reform; the politics of...