Deciders

How Guatemalans Defended Their Election

By Luis Mack, Carlos Sarti

This title will be released on Tuesday, September 22.

About the book

When Guatemala's outgoing government tried to overturn the results of a presidential election, ordinary citizens refused to let it stand. Deciders goes inside the 106 days of nonviolent resistance that followed, examining how road blockades, a permanent sit-in, and Indigenous ancestral authority became the tools of a movement with no single leader.

Drawing on interviews with Indigenous leaders, political organizers, and members of the resistance kitchen that sustained the movement, the report reconstructs how a fragmented citizen response evolved into a 106-day siege of the Public Prosecutor's Office, how women's leadership and playful protest symbols like the “Tonelito” barrel kept morale alive, and how nonviolent discipline held even as infiltrators, economic strain, and state intimidation tested it. It is an essential contribution to scholarship on Indigenous-led resistance, multisectoral coalition-building, and the defense of democracy against institutional capture.

The Nonviolent Conflict Special Report Series offers original studies that inspire and enrich discussions around civil resistance and nonviolent struggles around the world. Continuing the work of ICNC Press's Special Reports, launched in 2017, this series bridges the gap between academic, policy and practitioner communities.

All special reports undergo double-blind peer review.

Countries

Guatemala

Regions

North America, Latin America

Also in

Spanish

Written for

Scholars

About the authors

Carlos Alberto Sarti Castañeda

Carlos Sarti is a social anthropologist and holds an MA in Political Science. He has been Director of the Propaz Foundation since 2003.

He has extensive experience in institutional leadership and management, strategic planning, foresight, and project monitoring and evaluation. He has worked as a manager and negotiator with nongovernmental organizations, international cooperation agencies, and state and government institutions.

He is a national and international sociopolitical analyst with expertise in political research and in state–society relations, democracy, social movements, and electoral processes. He has served as an advisor and capacity-building trainer for NGOs and government institutions, and as a national and international consultant on a range of issues.

He is an expert in conflict resolution, nonviolence, and peacebuilding, with extensive experience designing and facilitating rapprochement, dialogue, mediation, and negotiation processes. He has trained professionals and organizations on peace theory; conflict theory; state–society relations (the public sphere); conflict prevention, management, resolution, and transformation; nonviolence; and foresight.

Luis Fernando Mack Echeverría

Luis Mack holds a PhD in Political Science and an MA in Social Sciences from FLACSO-Mexico, and a BA in Sociology from the University of San Carlos of Guatemala. He has held leadership positions in academic and research institutions such as FLACSO-Guatemala, the Institute of Political and Social Research at the School of Political Science (USAC), and the National Institute of Public Administration (INAP). He served as Coordinator of the Sociology Area at USAC's School of Political Science, founded the Independent Analysts of Guatemala (AIG), and acted as an advisor to the School of Democracy of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD).

He was an Associate Professor at FLACSO-Guatemala for several years. He is currently a columnist for the digital media outlet Plaza Pública, an independent political analyst, and Full Professor of Sociology at the School of Political Science, USAC.