Central America

Central America is the part of America south of the United States and north of Colombia. The countries that comprise Central America are Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama and these are all poor Third World countries. Central America is mainly agricultural with subsistence farming by poor people and large estates growing cash crops like banana coffee and cotton. The culture of many inhabitants is a mixture between Spanish and indigenous American.

Central America has suffered a great deal from crime, Civil rights violations and dictatorship generally.

There is a great deal of biodiversity in Central America which environmentalists care about. Roughly 30 million people live in Central America. Rain happens most between May and November.

The Atlantic and Pacific oceans border Central America as does the Caribbean. Parts of Central America are mountainous and other parts are low lying. There are volcanoes in Central America and volcanic eruptions can be devastating as can hurricanes. Mining, oil drilling and overexploitation of timber has caused environmental problems in many Central American countries.