Guatemala's election is taking place against the background of a corroded state, riven society, disconnected elite and paralysed people.

This excellent article, by Ivan Briscoe in openDemocracy through NACLA News, talks about a crisis in Guatemala in the lead up to the 2nd round of the elections.

He talks of the mystery of 'a democracy with 51% poverty, wracked by the worst inequality in the continent, afflicted by crime and judicial decay, [that] feels compelled to cure its wounds by scratching them harder and harder'.

In setting the scene, he explains that 'Guatemala has death-squads, polo matches, mega-churches and four television channels, all belonging to one foreigner. Only Russia has a higher murder-rate for women, only China exports more children for adoption to the United States'.

From the civil war through to narco-trafficking by way of the oligarchs, he suggests that 'as the world forgets central America, a tragedy is forming, born out of cold-war beachheads and powdering northern noses'.