Civil Society and the Regional Labyrinth in Central America

Abstract

During the last decade of the twentieth century, a series of unprecedented events in Central America contributed to the reshapinq of the Isthmus as a region. The term ‘regional construction’¹ will be used herein to refer to this phenomenon. This term is intended to describe a range of occurrences including the pacification and democratization of political systems, economic restructuring, the redesigning of regional institutions, and the formation of new intraregional movements that transcend borders. As part of this rise of regionalism, new actors with new methods and ways of uniting and interrelating are perceived as having emerged and evolved.² But what has not yet happened is the development of an institutional apparatus and a regional construction of Central America that includes a democratic and participatory process that integrates nations. The complex endogenous and exogenous reasons for this are the focus of this chapter.