“For me, what these elections really represent is the question of ‘Does democracy deliver?’ Will elections in Guatemala put a new type of public official in power? Will these public officials be accountable to the law, or will they share the impunity enjoyed by their predecessors? Do people come to power despite having committed massive violations of human rights, or because they have? . . .

“I’m framing my comments today around the struggle between impunity and accountability. Impunity literally means escape from punishment, and its political usage, especially in Latin America, refers to a situation in which a crime can be committed with the assurance that the perpetrator will escape justice. Accountability refers to the struggle to hold those people responsible for the atrocities, whether that means sending somebody to prison…or at least removing people from power. What I suggest today, when I think about the Guatemala elections, is that we can see Gen. Efraim Rios Montt as the poster child for this debate of impunity vs. accountability. . . . I think the main news here is less about who won and more about who lost.”