Kurt Weyland is the Mike Hogg Professor in Liberal Arts at the University of Texas–Austin. His books include Assault on Democracy: Communism, Fascism, and Authoritarianism During the Interwar Years (2021).
Almost no one expected a little-known candidate to defeat the ruling antidemocratic regime at the ballot box. But the Guatemalan opposition, backed by the international community, exploited the criminal oligarchy’s…