Central American crisis

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The Central American crisis refers to events in the late 1970s when major civil wars and pro-communist revolutions erupted in various countries in Central America resulting in the region becoming one of the world's foreign policy hot spots in the 1980s. In particular, the United States feared that victory by communist forces would threaten the Panama Canal and would isolate the rest of South America from the United States if the counties of Central America were to be installed by pro-soviet communist governments.


Main article: Nicaraguan Revolution

El Salvador[edit]

Main article: Salvadoran Civil War


The United States supported the Salvadoran military government.[1][2][3] Israel also actively supported the government forces. The conflict ended in the early 1990s. Between 75,000 and 90,000 people were killed in El Salvadoran Civil War.[citation needed]


Main article: Guatemalan Civil War

Guatemala's civil war began in 1960, but the army and death squads appeared to have contained it. However, Guatemala also saw an increase in violence in the late 1970s, marked by the 1978 Panzós massacre. In 1982 the resurgent guerrilla groups united in the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity. The presidency of Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-1983), during which he implemented a strategy he called "beans and bullets", is widely considered[by whom?] the war's turning point. The Guatemalan government and the severely weakened guerrillas signed a peace agreement in December 1996, ending the war.



United States response[edit]

Peace efforts[edit]


See also[edit]


  1. ^ Francesca Davis DiPiazza. El Salvador in Pictures. p. 32. 
  3. ^ [1] CIA World Factbook. Accessed online February 21, 2008.

External links[edit]