ABSTRACT
In 1998 the Catholic truth commission published Guatemala Never Again. A year later the UN-sponsored Commission for Historical Clarification published Guatemala: Memory of Silence. The lifeblood of the economy consists of illegal emigrants and drugs to the United States, the latter moving north from Colombia. Washington’s antidrug campaigns enable the cartels to reap super-profits that they invest in corrupting police, courts, and lawmakers. The Riosmonttistas were strongest in the departments that had shown the most support for the guerrillas and been most ravaged by the Guatemalan army. The peace process was supposed to give the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union, the rest of the left, and the Maya movement the space they needed to overcome their distrust of each other, develop new leaders, and become a representative electoral force. In the 2003 election that ejected the Riosmonttistas from the presidency, they still won the majority of the vote in Huehuetenango, Quiche, and Baja Verapaz departments.
