By Ana Arana | Edited by Ricardo Sandoval-Palos

When Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, a tightly knit community of conservative politicians in Guatemala celebrated.

For years, they had lobbied hard, cultivating friends among right-leaning politicians and religious leaders from Guatemala City to Washington, D.C. They invested hope in hints that a return of Trump to the White House would end travel bans and economic sanctions imposed on many of them by the previous Biden administration because they had attempted to stop the 2024 inauguration of Guatemala’s President Bernardo Arévalo.

Arévalo’s victory had shocked Guatemala’s ruling class — a community of politicians, military officers, and religious leaders whose families long called the shots in the Central American na

See Full Page