Central America

British director Alex Cox’s 1987 film Walker, starring Ed Harris, laid an uncompromising critique of U.S. imperialism in Nicaragua. For his “a revolutionary film in a revolutionary context," Cox was blacklisted from the industry.

In the 1980s, the Reagan administration illegally funded counter-revolutionary warfare in Nicaragua. As scandal engulfed Washington, the solidarity movement pushed back against intervention. 

The 1979 Sandinista victory over the Somoza dictatorship sparked hope across Central America and beyond. Nicaragua quickly became ground zero of a violent U.S.-backed counterrevolutionary war.

Augusto Sandino is celebrated as a Nicaraguan revolutionary and liberator. The U.S invasion he resisted set the stage for dictatorship and, later, revolution.

In the 19th century, U.S. filibusters invaded and annexed Latin American territories in the name of Manifest Destiny. One man’s quest to conquer Nicaragua shows the deep roots of U.S. efforts to “spread democracy” abroad.

Former president Juan Orlando Hernández has been convicted of drug trafficking. The United States and Canada remain unaccountable.

The 2009 coup ratcheted up the sell-off of land and resources, enabled state-sponsored drug trafficking and corruption, and fueled a migrant exodus—all with U.S. and Canadian support.

The 2009 U.S.-backed coup ruptured Honduras’s three-decade-old democracy. Despite a media blockade, militarization, and deadly repression, the people took to the streets—and refused to back down.

Often overlooked in the story of U.S. imperialism in Central America, Honduras has served as a training base and staging ground for interventions throughout the region. In the 1980s, the impacts were devastating.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has been reelected in a landslide. Supporters praise his security gains despite widespread human rights abuses, and leaders across the region are looking to emulate his model.

Guatemala's new president Bernardo Arévalo is now in office. But the struggle to defend democracy against the forces fixated on blocking his rise to power isn't over yet.

Broadcasting the Salvadoran government's atrocities throughout the armed conflict, the guerrilla radio station Venceremos had a clear goal: bringing down the U.S.-backed dictatorship.