PAN
This chapter examines the failure of the PAN in Guatemala, and compares it to the success of ARENA in El Salvador. The first section discusses the country’s history of right-wing military rule. The second section asks why no “Guatemalan ARENA” formed, arguing that this was due to the sui generis nature of the Ríos Montt dictatorship (1982–1983) and the resulting formation of an important non-conservative authoritarian successor party (FRG). The third section examines the formation of the PAN, drawing attention to the relative weakness of its starting position. The final section looks at the series of schisms that led to the PAN’s demise, highlighting the complete absence of the mechanisms of cohesion found in ARENA—a problem made worse by the quick-fix solution that it found to its problem of organizational weakness: incorporating local bosses from an existing party, who had little loyalty to the PAN’s founders and would later turn against them.