Countries in Central America have high levels of religiosity. Religion isn't really a cause of the poverty so much as a symptom. When a country crumbles, the people in it tend to turn to religion, but when a country picks itself back up again, the people in it tend to turn AWAY from religion, because, to quote Jasper from Steven Universe, "When you're at the bottom, you'll follow anybody that makes you feel like less of a failure."