ABSTRACT
Assuming a victory for the Frente Republicano Guatemalteco (FRG), the party founded by former dictator Efrain Rios Montt—following only six months after the defeat of the constitutional reforms—Guatemala's general elections could be portrayed as a triumph of the iron fist and a slap in the face of the peace accords. Politically, FRG victory resulted from an astute populist campaign by Portillo, combined with a "punishment vote" against the Arzu government—primarily for the PAN's failure to take even the most basic measures to improve people's daily lives, while maintaining the privileges of the rich. In this sense, it was a vote about people's most immediate concerns, not about the long-range structural issues addressed in the peace accords. Within the FRG delegation that will dominate the new Congress are key architects and henchmen of the scorched-earth dirty war of the 1980s—not to mention Rios Montt himself, who will preside over Congress.
