Gift Of The Devil

Guatemalan history has been dominated by a long string of revolts punctuated by periods of exploitation and suppression. It is a history of sharp contrasts, of violent conflict between an oppressive elite and a majority Indian population. The first full history of Guatemala to appear in several decades, this volume reveals that the country's current traumas are a bitter but logical extension of a past based on harsh colonial institutions, dispossession and racial and economic oppression.