The Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA) is a term used in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

to refer collectively to the three

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

n countries of

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

, and

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

. The term is used with respect to the countries'

economic integration Economic integration is the unification of economic policies between different states, through the partial or full abolition of tariff and Non-tariff barriers to trade, non-tariff restrictions on trade. The trade-stimulation effects intended by ...

, and their shared challenges, including widespread poverty, violence, and corruption, which have prompted many to become refugees fleeing the three nations.Amelia Cheatham
Backgrounder: Central America's Turbulent Northern Triangle
Council on Foreign Relations. (last updated October 1, 2019). The Northern Triangle is one of

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

's poorest regions; as of 2018, all three countries were in the bottom 20% of

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

n nations by

GDP per capita This is a list of countries by nominal GDP per capita. GDP per capita is the total value of a country's finished goods and services (gross domestic product) divided by its total population (per capita). Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is ...

. An estimated 60% of Hondurans and Guatemalans subsist below their national

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

s in those countries, much higher than other Latin American nations. Collectively,

remittance A remittance is a non-commercial transfer of money by a foreign worker, a member of a diaspora community, or a citizen with familial ties abroad, for household income in their home country or homeland. Money sent home by migrants competes ...

s make up nearly 18% of the Northern Triangle's

economic output In economics, output is the quantity and quality of goods or services produced in a given time period, within a given economic network, whether consumed or used for further production. The economic network may be a firm, industry, or nation. Th ...

. The group of countries has signed trade agreements with

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

, the

, and

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. The agreement with Mexico began in 2001, later involved the

Mesoamerica Project The Mesoamerica Integration and Development Project, or in Spanish (PM), is a mechanism by which 10 countries centered on Central America implement regional projects for development and integration. The 10 participating countries are Belize, C ...

, and expanded to

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

and

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

in 2011. The Northern Triangle has struggles with chronic violence, attributable to longstanding

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

and political instability in the region. During the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

, these three countries were the site of proxy wars and political instability, collectively known as the

Central American crisis The Central American crisis began in the late 1970s, when major civil wars and communist revolutions erupted in various countries in Central America, causing it to become the world's most volatile region in terms of socioeconomic change. In particu ...

. These wars included the

Guatemalan Civil War The Guatemalan Civil War was fought from 1960 to 1996 between the government of Guatemala and various Left-wing politics, leftist rebel groups. The Guatemalan government forces committed Guatemalan genocide, genocide against the Maya population o ...

and the

Salvadoran Civil War The Salvadoran Civil War () was a twelve-year civil war in El Salvador that was fought between the government of El Salvador, backed by the United States, and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition of left-wing guer ...

. These countries have ongoing struggles with expansive criminal networks, such as the transnational criminal organizations, including 18th Street (M-18) and

Mara Salvatrucha Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS-13, is an international criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles, California, in the 1980s. Originally, the gang was set up to protect Salvadoran immigrants from other gangs in the Los Angeles area ...

(MS-13). Harsh anti-crime policies (known as La Mano Dura), enacted by Northern Triangle governments starting in the early 2000s, in most cases failed to reduce crime and may have backfired by dramatically expanding prison populations, a fertile ground for gang recruitment. This region has one of the highest rates of intentional homicide for a country. According to the United Nations, in 2016 there were 27.26 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in Guatemala, 82.84 in El Salvador, and 56.52 in Honduras. The homicide rate declined somewhat by 2019—with 22 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in Guatemala, 32 per 100,000 inhabitants in El Salvador, and 40 per 100,000 inhabitants in Honduras—but remained markedly high. The Northern Triangle has also experienced high rates of both emigration and migration. Research conducted by the PEW Research Center found that between the years 2007 and 2015, the number of emigrants from this region into the US has risen by 25%. According to surveys and other research conducted in this region, the majority migration and emigration levels can be attributed to the social, economic and environmental plight they face.

Climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

is a major driver of emigration from the region.

References

{{Reflist Central America Regions of Central America

See also

References