Mexico's geopolitics in Central America: Regional hegemony? [La geopol�tica de M�xico en Centro Am�rica: �Una hegemon�a regional?]

Mexico as well as Brazil (first decade of 2000) started to release geo-economic and geo-political projections about their unmediated surroundings (their region of belonging) and their mediated surroundings (their neighboring region), besides playing major political roles in their far surroundings (the Latin American and Caribbean region) and their remote surroundings (the American continent). As a result, we have proposed and developed the idea that such situations and realities are those of processes of constitution of States with "sub-hegemonic" roles, with their respective functions of "sub-hegemony". We therefore ask the following question: Why are both Mexico and Brazil defining "sub-hegemonic" roles? Are such roles and functions possible within a continental space where a "superpower" exerts unquestionable "supremacy" besides seeking to redefine its "hegemony" (the one now undergoing a crisis)? In order to work on the theme of Mexico's geopolitical relations with Central America, we have carried out four approximations: Mexico's current stance; historical background of the relations; process of institutionalization of cooperation; and field of action of the relations. Besides, the work is concluded with some ideas about Mexico's geopolitical view. The approximation to Mexico's structural stance in the world and in the American Continent seeks to highlight realities in its condition of semiperipheral and "sub-hegemonic" country. The historical approximation leads to the 1980s and the 1990s, when the background for Mexico's cooperation with Central America is established and that cooperation is started and strengthened. The institutional approximation, focused on the 1990s and the early 2000s, approaches the field of action of Mexico's geopolitical and geo-economic relations with Central America. This is the core part of the work, since it is the Mechanism for Dialog and Concertation of Tuxtla- Guti�rrez and its four levels of operation: 1. The political level; 2. The development level; 3. The level of regional technical cooperation; and 4. The economical, comercial, and financial level