In 1996, when Guatemala emerged from a bloody 36-year civil war that cost the country up to 200,000 lives, people hoped that Central America’s most populous country would finally turn the corner.

The peace accords signed during the presidency of Alvaro Arzú laid out a promising roadmap covering economic, political and social reform. Ceasefire and demilitarisation would be accompanied by constitutional reform. The rights of the country’s mainly indigenous population would be respected for the first time since independence from Spain in 1821.