Indeed. These Central American countries remind me of Haiti, where we poured lives and money into helping to straighten them out, only to see them backslide in a few years. I don't know what the answer is as the Reds always come back in. As long as the Latin political systems remain, we'll always hear of one of them "continue to move toward authoritarianism".
There is one notable exception, however: Honduras.
Not that they had any help from the U.S....