Central American Northern Triangle

The Northern Triangle of Central America (Spanish: Triángulo Norte de Centroamérica) refers to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. It is not a formal treaty bloc but a geographic and policy shorthand used by governments, multilateral lenders, and humanitarian agencies to describe the three countries' shared challenges: high homicide rates, transnational gang activity (notably MS-13 and Barrio 18), weak state institutions, rural poverty, and large-scale outbound migration toward Mexico and the United States.

The three states are members of the broader Central American Integration System (SICA), established by the 1991 Tegucigalpa Protocol, and participate alongside Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic in the CAFTA-DR free trade agreement with the United States, which entered into force on a rolling basis between 2006 and 2009.

Northern Triangle terminology became prominent in U.S. policy circles after the 2014 surge of unaccompanied minors arriving at the U.S. southwest border. In response, the Obama administration launched the Alliance for Prosperity Plan (2014) and Congress appropriated assistance aimed at addressing the "root causes" of migration — violence, corruption, and lack of economic opportunity. The Biden administration revived this framing in 2021, tasking Vice President Kamala Harris with a Northern Triangle strategy and launching the Root Causes Strategy and Collaborative Migration Management Strategy.

Key recurring policy themes include:

• Migration management and bilateral asylum cooperation agreements
• Anti-corruption efforts, including the UN-backed CICIG in Guatemala (2007–2019) and the OAS-backed MACCIH in Honduras (2016–2020), both since disbanded
• Security cooperation under programs such as the Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI)
• Remittance dependence, which exceeds 20% of GDP in Honduras and El Salvador

The grouping is analytical rather than legal; the three governments do not always coordinate policy and have diverged sharply, particularly under El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele.