[b][u]Central America[/u][/b]
[i]Author's Note: Mexico is included within the Central American entry for the sake of convenience, and due to the involvement of the other neighbouring countries with the fate of Mexico. Additionally, due to the presence and influence of the CAA, some traditionally South American countries are included.[/i]

[b]Mexico[/b]
Mexico was beset by civil unrest and violence during the last years of the 20th century and during the early years of the 21st century, due to the increasingly powerful influence of Drug Cartels in the country. Their financial and military influence, as well as holding sway with people due to a combination of violence and the provision of jobs and services that provided better than the legitimate government meant that, especially in rural or remote areas or in cities, towns, or provinces remote from the central government, they had more power and were engaged in what was essentially war against the government. 
Few of these cartels had much in the way of political aspiration or ideology beyond the freedom from restriction to manufacture and traffic their product, and to create an environment where they can do this without challenge. 
When the Heavenfall came, the geological upheavals and disasters wrought havok through the country. The elected government's ability to respond was hampered by the conflict with the cartels and their influence. Cartels mobilised their forces throughout the country and the region at large. 
The Mexican government pleaded for help from the USA and other allied nations in combating the Cartels, and this resulted in a massive military operation, with elements of the armed forces, police and government turning in open rebellion against the rest. At the end of operations, the country was split in two with everything north of a line coast-to-coast with Puebla in the middle being in control of the legitimate and elected government, and everything south of that line a part of the (lengthily named) Mexican State of the Central America Alliance, often called CAA Mexico. 
Additionally, the Baja peninsula was ceded to the United States, with the border along the Colorado River.
Despite the extensive and costly military campaign, Mexico still struggles with insurgent action and resistance from CAA affiliated groups throughout its' territory, along with White American Nationalist Clan activity, especially in coastal regions. 
Mexico has aligned with the N/UN, and has attempted to rearm and reinforce its' military in a program of modernisation and accelerated training, employing many PMCs as training, support, and advisory personnel, especially in border regions. 

[b]The CAA[/b]
The Central American Alliance came about as a consequence of decades of government corruption, criminal cartels, insurgencies and military coups throughout the central american countries of Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama and Nicaragua. 
When the Heavenfall crashed down and the devastation that came along with it, the destruction ravaged these countries all-but crippled their governments and their ability to respond. Following this, the WANC swept through the area, ravaging and stripping the region of military assets and further cutting a swathe through the population. Cartels, insurgent forces and radical groups seized power and forged alliances between one another, overthrowing the legitimate governments and forming their own systems and forms of governance and control.
After years, and infighting between various factions, the dominant governments of these regions were formed of a coalition of drug cartel barons and their followers, marxist groups or religious sects. Forming a coalition of representatives, they signed and organised treaties with the NCAA, who have greatly invested into the region, along with MegaCorporations, the ISL and other nonaligned entities. Colombia later voluntarily aligned with the CAA and NCAA.
While the CAA does not yet possess any known weapons of mass destruction, they have been actively pursuing them, with suspected capability for basic chemical weapons and possibly crude biologicals or radiologicals. Their strategic power projection is lacking, with no major naval or long-range air assets, but this is being rapidly changed thanks to agreements with the NCAA.  

[b]Independent Panama[/b]
The Panama Canal remains a highly important shipping connection between the Atlantic and Pacific and of strategic importance. As such, when the NCAA was being formed and Panama was unravelling, a coalition of NATO and allied forces - including from several South American nations - thrown together hastily launched a limited campaign to secure territory around the canal and established a secure zone that would later become known as Independent Panama. The region was garrisoned by N/UN-licenced PMC's and N/UN national forces to provide a barrier of security, and is a hotspot of insurgency, surrounded as it is by hostile forces.

[b]Costa Rica [/b]
Almost the only surviving independent nation in Central America, Costa Rica weathered the rise of the CAA through fortune and the grace of the N/UN and PMC's. The resistance against CAA aggression was one of the first large deployments of PMCs including Shattered Steel, and the first time they fought alongside national forces. 
Costa Rica has remained a country with a robust democratic government, and has maintained its' free trade zones, which have become a haven for MegaCorporations, who in turn have bought much of their own security forces into the nation, a situation that has lead to tension, given that Cosa Rica has no standing army of its' own. The government has had intense discussion about either establishing their own military, or hiring a PMC on a long-term contract to provide stability and security, although currently this has only been maintained at the border against CAA activities.