Abstract: This is an important and useful legal primer for Central America activists. It shatters the myths about the "neutrality" of U.S. law and situates legal questions where they really are: in the arena of political struggle. It shows how the law is used both by governing elites who share a consensus on keeping U.S. hegemony in Central America and by grassroots movements that push the limits of law and appeal to its underlying values to work for the self-determination of peoples in the region.