Crisis, breakdown, and disintegration have become operative concepts in journalistic, academic, and official assessments of contemporary affairs in Central America. The radicalization and Cubanization of the Nicaraguan revolution, the resurgence of revolutionary messianism and continuing violence in El Salvador and Guatemala, and the increasingly active and direct role which regional powers and European countries are playing in the region have turned Central America into a salient, global confrontational arena.

A systemic view, however, would miss important political processes continuing with surprising strength but unnoticed regularity in some Central American nations indirectly affected by revolutionary conflict and thus partially insulated from the region's high level of violence.