�Ͼ�Ʒ��

As the Guatemalan civil war waned in the early 1990s, Guatemala began a transition to democracy. With the brief exception of the “Democratic Spring” of 1944–1954, 1 Guatemalan had been under authoritarian rule for most of the twentieth century. Not all presidents were military officers, but it was clear that the military—not the people—controlled Guatemala destiny. 2 Although elections were regularly held, especially in the latter half of the twentieth century, these contests were neither free nor fair. Somehow the military preferred candidates almost always prevailed. And even when they did not, the military still held sway behind the scenes3—to the detriment of the country large Indigenous population and the rural poor, who had little access to power.

By the mid-1990s, that all began to change. New political parties emerged, internationally monitored elections were held, and the Peace Accords of 1996 charted a new path for Guatemala future. Yet as in so many key moments of Guatemalan history, Guatemala transition to democracy occurred in the shadow of violence. First and foremost, although the civil war formally ended in 1996, the scars of the conflict lingered. 4 More than 200,000 Guatemalans had been killed (Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico 1999, 21), and many more were wounded or orphaned. For many, the lofty rhetoric of the Peace Accords proved to be more aspiration than reality, as they waited years to decades to see justice for the wartime atrocities they had suffered—if justice ever came at all. 5