I've heard bits and pieces about how much of Central America was mired in civil war in the 80s, with the U.S. supporting certain right-wing groups during this time.
For example, Óscar Romero's murder and recent elevation to sainthood, the murder of American nuns in El Savador, El Mozote and the attempts by Elliott Abrams to obfuscate it, the This American Life episode on Dos Erres, John Negroponte and Battalion 3-16 in Honduras, The School of the Americas, American Made, Iran-Contra... Only I don't have a good overall picture of the conflict and events.
Are there any good introductions - either books, documentaries or podcasts - on this chapter of Central America's history and the U.S.' involvement in it?
"Killing Hope: US and CIA Interventions Since World War II -- Updated through 2003"
By William Blum.
As the title suggests, the book covers a wider time-frame and geographic region, but there are lots of good details about happenings in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Belize in the 1980's.
Also Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion"
This focuses almost exclusively on the CIA operations in Nicaragua during the 1980's, gives great details on the scandal that came to be know as the Iran Contra affair.
I don't know if this is what you would be looking for, but there's a popular history on Colombia and the drug war called "Killing Pablo" that details American intervention in the police actions of the Colombian police and their dysfunction during the late 80's and early 90's. I cannot remember how much it describes US involvement. Bowder is a journalist and the book describes the eventual death of Pablo Escobar and the actions that led to that. There was also a book I read on the shining Path, "When Rains Became Floods," but the information in that is provided from an individual, subjective point of view. It was written by a former member of the Sendero Luminoso, and I don't think it involves as much information about American intervention.