Guatemala: Ten Years After the Agreements on a Firm and Lasting Peace recounts the meeting held in Antigua on March 22-24, 2007, the first of a project called National Dialogues on Democracy in Latin America sponsored by the Inter-American Dialogue and the Organization of American States.

The core objective of these national dialogues is to summon analysts, politicians, private sector leaders and civil society actors to reflect on the quality of democracy in their countries. In conjunction with a local partner, the Inter-American Dialogue and the OAS anticipate that the participants in these meetings will define benchmarks to measure democratic progress five years from now. The Association for Research and Social Studies (ASIES) was our partner in Guatemala. In Antigua, 36 Guatemalans from a variety of sectors brought differing political perspectives to the conversation.

In each country, one of the participants will assume the role of rapporteur —in this case, Dr. Gustavo Porras Castejón— with the task of producing a report that would prompt a public debate about governance and democratic consolidation. In every case, the reports will reflect exclusively the views of national participants regarding the state of democracy in their countries. These participants sign the reports in their individual capacities. Although not all the signatories —in this case, the 36 Guatemalans— actually subscribe to each phrase contained in the document, all of them —with the exceptions made in their individual comments— support the content and the overall tone of the report.

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Table of Contents

I. Accomplishments and Obstacles 10 Years After the Peace Accords

II. Political Institutions

III. Citizen Security

IV. Inclusion and Inequality

V. Political Parties

VI. Civil Society

VII. The Next 10 Years

VIII. Benchmarks 2012