Abstract

Democracy in Latin America: V. Chaos on Our Doorstep

The article discusses the political scenario in five republics of Central America. In 1944, even before the world war ended, unrest seized the people of the five Central American countries and set off a series of democratic revolutions. The economy of Honduras, the poorest and least developed of the five states is based on banana cultivation, which form 50 per cent of all exports. World War II brought a flow of money from the U.S. and a fleeting prosperity to some countries, but for the people of Honduras it meant only greater poverty than before. In Guatemala the Revolutionary Junta assumed power. It promulgated a number of decrees putting in effect its local and political program and convoked a Constituent Assembly width drew up a new liberal constitution.