Social Movements, Indigenous Politics and Democratization in Guatemala, 1985-1996. RODDY BRETT: Boston: Brill, 2008.

Abstract

Recent events in Guatemala – selective repression of indigenous activists, human rights violations, and the acceleration of everyday violence – attest to the truism of an old saying: “The past is still with us; in fact, it isn’t even passed.” To be sure, the intensity and scale of political violence has been reduced dramatically since the signing of the peace accords that ended one of the most brutal and seemingly intractable wars in the western hemisphere in the twentieth century.