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Mexico: from single party to pluralism
Given the background of sweeping transformations in Latin America, the Mexican case is emblematic of the reach but also the limits of the ongoing changes. Modern Mexico has a complex original history. It is the outcome of various major factors each with a specific weight: the glorious past of the pre-Columbian civilisations, Spanish colonisation, the…
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Nicaragua: from utopia to reality
How are the recent Nicaragua eleсtions to be seen to the background of Central American politics? Does the rise to power of the new president Arnoldo Alemán simply reflect the internal situation in Nicaragua or is there a more widespread ongoing tendency in Central America? At the time of writing, just after the elections of…
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Guatemala’s difficult road to peace
In the 1980s the countries in the Central American isthmus were characterised by great instability (the only exception being Costa Rica). There were civil wars in Guatemala and Salvador, the ContrasSandinistas conflict in Nicaragua with repercussions in Honduras, while Panama was under the Noriega dictatorship. All of these situations were then gradually settled and national…