Dictatorship and its aftermath / Eduardo Galeano -- Construction of Democracy in Nicaragua / Susanne Jonas and Nancy Stein --Origins of crisis and instability in Central America / Edelberto Torres-Rivas --Contradictions of Guatemala's "Political Opening" / Susanne Jonas -- Redemocratization process / James Petras -- Foreign debt, the threat of foreign intervention, and democracy in Latin America / Pablo Gonzalez Casanova -- Unpayable debt / Regino Diaz -- Twenty-six years of Cuban revolutionary politics / Max Azicri -- Haiti / Gerard Pierre-Charles -- Economic crisis and dependency / Jose A. Moreno.