Session 1 will focus on recent events in Guatemala and Honduras, with Costa Rica serving as a counterpoint. With Bernardo Arevalo’s ascension to the presidency challenged and in question until the hour he was inaugurated, democracy appeared both fragile and vibrant in Guatemala. Long active in politics and economics despite their marginalization, indigenous people led protests that, in a historic first, non-indigenous peoples followed. Honduras similarly struggles with narcotraficantes and other organized crime violence. Civil society has been crumbling as elites (sometimes with U.S. support) maintain political power for themselves. As in Guatemala, women face alarmingly high rates of feminicide. Voting with their feet, many Hondurans have fled to the United States in recent years seeking security and stability. Costa Rica is often seen as exceptional, yet today is politically polarized between the traditional center-left parties and the current socially conservative and economically neoliberal president, Rodrigo Chaves.