Genocide is the tip of the iceberg: reviewing the Guatemalan case

In 2013 the former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos-Montt was tried in a national court for genocide and crimes against humanity. He was found guilty and sent to prison, but the verdict was quickly overturned on technical grounds. Local reactions to these events were varied, since the Mayan genocide is one of the most controversial issues for Guatemalan society today. In this article, I draw on the Ríos-Montt case to discuss the Mayan genocide not as an isolated event, but only as the momentary surfacing of a set of institutional arrangements that also explain the astonishing inequality that prevails in this Central American country.