Retired General Efrain Rios Montt is making a concerted effort to gain the support of peasants and indigenous Maya peoples in his bid for the Guatemalan presidency. Many peasants whose villages were destroyed by Rios Montt’s counterinsurgency campaign during the civil war, remain loyal to his party (the FRG or Guatemalan Republican Front Party). The FRG’s populist program of lowering fertilizer costs, providing free health care, increasing the minimum wage, and rebuilding infrastructure is popular among many of Guatemala’s poorest citizens who believe that Guatemala needs a firm rule.
