Via the BBC: Centrist claims win in Guatemala

Centre-left candidate Alvaro Colom has declared victory in Guatemala’s presidential election with the count nearly complete.

With results from 95% of polling stations counted, Mr Colom had a lead of 5% over his right-wing rival Otto Perez Molina.

[…]

Guatemalan society is still dominated by the aftermath of the country’s bitter and deadly civil war, which raged for 36 years until 1996.

The violent paramilitary forces which fought the civil war were never disbanded but simply recycled and put to use by drug traffickers and money launderers, says the BBC’s Latin American analyst James Painter.

The country’s murder rate currently stands at about 5,000 per year, making it one of the most violent in Latin America.

All of which makes governance rather tricky, shall we say.

Yesterday’s contest was the run-off needed after no one won with the first ballot.

Some background on the political upheaval in the 1950s that set some of the conditions for the civil war, go here.