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Both industrialized nations and Latin American developing countries are losers under the burden of the crushing debt crisis. Although lower population growth rates and a certain increase in exports do permit a measure of optimism, Latin America may be facing a future of social turmoil and the possibility of military take-overs. If, on the other hand, the region's debt burden could be reduced, the future could bring an influx of foreign capital providing new growth and a strengthening of the democratric process

Miskito Nicaraguans have been returning from refugee camps in neighboring Honduras in significant numbers since long before the Contra war came to an end. The author describes this process and explains it by reviewing the unique agreement between Miskito organizations and the Sandinista government, providing for a measure of internal autonomy for the Miskito and other Indian groups

The author describes the Nicaraguan celebration of La Purisima, by far the most popular festivity in the country, and discusses this religious and social phenomenon as an expression of the position of women in Nicaraguan society

Written before the anti-drug war was launched, the article reviews the history of the coca leaf, assesses the impact of cocaine on the economies of Bolivia, Colombia and Peru, discusses the alleged entanglement of leftist guerrilla groups in the drug trade, and points to the dire consequences to coca cultivators, should they be forced out of business

The author reviews the threats to the rainforests of Brazil and Central America by cattle raising for mostly US-based fast food chains and by efforts to solve the urban over-population by allowing large-scale resettling of marginal city populations in deforested areas. The author calls for international collaboration to prevent the destruction of the earth lungs in Amazonia

By shipping arms and providing military experts to Central American governments, Israel is repaying an historic debt to these nations for the role they played in the UN in promoting Israeli statehood in the wake of the Second World War. Yet, whereas the debt is owed to liberal Central American regimes, it is being repaid to military dictatorships and to rightist opposition forces like the Nicaraguan Contra rebels

The author examines the constitution written under general Pinochet's military regime and shows why the political change taking place in Chile can at best produce a transitional regime that in turn may lead to democracy. The constitutional amendments required by the Chilean opposition are outlined

The author describes some of the main trends in the political development of Haiti after president-for-life, Jean-Claude Duvalier, fled the country in February 1986. The claim is made that the political and administrative vacuum left by Duvalier has been filled by competing sectors of Haiti's military establishment that has thus prevented a development toward democracy in the foreseeable future

The author concentrates on the development of Norway's relations with Central America. From virtually non-existing connections, the 1980s have seen the establishment of a Norwegian embassy in Costa Rica, and a substantial growth in aid to Sandinist Nicaragua. The political debate in Norway over Nicaragua is outlined, as is the anger provoked in the US government by the Central American policy of its NATO ally

Against the background of brief descriptions of individual activities within the informal economic sector in a number of Latin American cities, the authors examine the informal structure in Lima, Peru. A complex of explanations are offered for the explosive growth in the informal sector, including the efforts by many entrepreneurs to evade bureaucratic obstacles to productivity and profitability. Social consequences to informal sector workers are outlined