United Provinces of Central America

In 1939, with political instability in the US over Huey Long’s attempt to nationalize the Federal Reserve and riots from socialists, a war between Nicaragua under president Augusto Sandino and Honduras under president Jose Leon Castro broke out in november, with Nicaragua testing their strength against Honduras and even hoping to spread the revolution north, although they do claim it’s over a border dispute. But tactical failures on both sides meant the war resulted in a stalemate a few months later. In that time, Guatemala fell to socialist revolution. Faced with the possibility of being overwhelmed by socialist forces, Honduras allied themselves with the equally, if not more reactionary El Salvador under the leadership of the national populist Maximiliano Hernández Martínez on March 12th of 1940, forming the somewhat ironically named People's Vanguard

In January 1941, Guatemala and Nicaragua allied to form the Revolutionary Front, making Honduras and El Salvador suspicious, but in truth it was a response to the actions of Honduras and El Salvador from the previous year. This came to ahead on May 9th 1941, in the famed Corinto Incident, where Guatemalan and Honduran border patrols exchanged gunfire along a relatively minor stretch of territory. Without any casualties or outside observers, both sides were able to claim the other was within their territory and as such had the right to open fire, although we may never know the truth. But what is known is that both sides used the opportunity to claim the other had started it, and ready for war, claiming that it would be the only way future incidents could be avoided. On May 12th, 1941, Nicaraguan troops crossed the Honduran border and began moving towards their capital, while Guatemalans began moving towards the secondary city of San Pedro Sula in Honduras and towards San Salvador, the war had begun.

The the war initially went well for the socialists, and they pushed El Salvador back to their capital and Honduras out of most of the north of their nation. But being on opposite sides of Central America made military coordination difficult, and Guatemala had not yet fully recovered from its own revolution, not even mentioning that Honduras and El Salvador had plenty of time to prepare for the invasion.

The turning point came in the battle of Santa Tecla, a small town outside of San Salvador. From May 15th-22nd, Guatemalans and Salvadorans slaughtered each other, until the Salvadorans emerged victorious. Simultaneously, battles in northeastern Honduras routed Nicaraguan forces who had been attempting to link up with Guatemalans. By, June 1st, Managua had fallen to Honduras, and Ciudad de Guatemala fell by the 25th, ending socialist governance in Central America.

With the war won, hoping to simultaneously end socialism within central america and build a state powerful enough to stand on the world stage, the victors installed new governments in the defeated states and began stoking the fires of Central American nationalism.

On July 1st 1941, with the US engaged in its second civil war, and no power in the region strong enough to prevent it, the four nations of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala voted to form the Federal Republic of Central America. Rule fell to a council of military officials and politicians until a new constitution could be written.

But although the socialist nations were defeated, remnant military forces belonging to them engaged in partisan warfare, and sympathetic elements across the new nation committed sabotage, with notable incidents including the April strikes, which slowed economic growth, and November terror, a series of bombings and attacks on factories, military bases, and government buildings that killed around 100 people, mostly military personnel.

In an attempt to stop the fighting and secure power, military and political leaders from the FRCA met with socialist leaders and offered to install a relative moderate, Somoza García, an exiled Nicaraguan general. Knowing they couldn’t win in the long term, the socialists agreed, officially ending the fighting on July 24 1943. This left only the die hard socialists under the leadership of an increasingly radical Augusto César Sandino to carry on the fight.

The more autocratic elements took this opportunity and ensured that García would be nothing more than a figurehead, forming a political block to control the senate, with corporatists and ultraconservative elements holding the most sway and giving special rights and privileges to American Corporations, making the wealthy wealthier. For now though, the nation was stabilized.

On March 9th, 1945, facing pressure from Panama to surrender the Cote Brus region, and without the backing of the US, Costa Rica negotiated a union with the FRCA. Riots occur in San José and the surrounding areas, but these are suppressed by the army and local police, who manage to disperse the crowds through mostly peaceful means. The union worked as planned, and Panama backed down, but the newly integrated Costa Rica bought a lot of center and leftist politicians into the FRCA, which meant a return to instability for the FRCA.

In 1947, a series of strikes began, organized by resistance movements resulted in government crackdown, and around 200 people died, while another 500 were injured. In many cases this resulted in more people shifting left, but in some cases, this angered many who saw the actions by the left as weakening the nation, and the government crackdown as disproportional. Swayed by the arguments of Costa Rican politicians, many moved towards moderate views. While small, the moderates have become a persistent force advocating for free elections.

Furthermore, the hope that corporate investment could help stabilize and grow that nation's economy has backfired, as actions taken by the government to protect corporate interests have reinvigorated socialist movements, leading to street fighting between military forces and red sympathizers, with large amounts of support for the reds coming from abused indiginous tribes.