Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua once formed a single Spanish colony and did not become independent until the nineteenth century, when Panama and the Dominican Republic also became independent. Since then, each of these countries have taken their own path, developed their own legal systems and confronted their own economic, political and social realities. Interestingly, in the eyes of many multinational corporations, these countries still form a somewhat homogeneous sub-region.

Treating these relatively small economics as a single sub-region within Latin America allows multinationals to take advantage of economics of scale. In any case, the geographical proximity, common language and regulatory proximity between these countries seem to justify the unitary approach. Except for the Dominican Republic, which is part of an island, the rest are all neighboring countries ( Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama) sharing at least one border with another. The official language in each of these countries is Spanish, and their legal systems are rooted in the civil law tradition, which they inherited from Spain.