This book is a collective work published as part of a larger project titled "Mexico-Guatemala cross-border region; regional dimensions and bases for integrated development," the purpose of which is to introduce a series of issues relative to the geopolitical dimension of Mexico's actions in Central America and its stance on conflicts in the region between 1959 and 2019.

The most widely published texts up until now have been written by Mexican authors, and we have less insight into how these processes have been viewed from Central America. With that in mind, we brought together a group of specialists, each highly renowned in their own country, some of them academics and others whose accounts are worth hearing because of their participation in social and political movements that are closely bound up in this issue. The following questions guided the drafting of this book: How have Central Americans viewed Mexican policies toward their countries? What do they think of Mexico's influence in various spheres of life in the region? Has Central America's past view of Mexico as their Latin American "big brother" changed? What do they consider to be the most salient issues in relations between our countries? What were the strategic interests of Cuba and the United States in the region? How did these processes develop during the Cold War, and what elements began to change in the 1990s? The purpose of the chapters in this book is to answer these questions and to bring together and share knowledge and perspectives.

This book will appeal to students and researchers alike interested in the politics and history of 20th-century Mexico and Central America, as well as the involvement of such states during the Cold War and thereafter.

Mónica Toussaint, doctorate in Latin American Studies from UNAM. Full-time research professor and instructor in the postgraduate programs of the Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora. Postgraduate tutor in Latin American studies at UNAM. Research areas include history of Mexico-Central America-United States relations, 19th and 20th centuries; history of Mexican foreign policy; history of the southern border and oral history of Mexican diplomacy. Member of the National System of Researchers and the Mexican Academy of Sciences.

Guillermo Fernández Ampié, doctorate in Latin American Studies from UNAM. Adjunct professor at the Colegio de Estudios Latinoamericanos de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, UNAM. Adjunct researcher (by project) at the Instituto Mora. Tutor for postgraduate students in Latin American Studies at UNAM and in History at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua. His areas of research include historiography and the teaching of history in Central America; cultural constructs of nation and writing of memory and the history of the Central American wars of the late 20th century.