Originally published in 1983, this anthology was the first to integrate the political experiences of the Central American mainland and the Caribbean archipelago and provides analyses of some of the most explosive events of the 1970s and 80s in this region, including the Jonestown massacre, the failures of the Burnham regime in Guyana, the tumultuous elections in Jamaica in 1980, the army officers' coup d'etat in Suriname, the revolutions in Grenada and Nicaragua and the revolutionary upheaval in El Salvador. It also shows how the regional crisis affected such prosperous countries as Trinidad and Tobago and such politically stable regimes in St. Vincent and the French colonies of Martinique and Guadelope. It also discusses the development of the first Socialist regime in the region, Cuba