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An End to Anarchy. After his victory, the dapper Arana drove from his fortress-like home, usually guarded by 20 tough gunmen, to his National Liberation Movement headquarters in his ancient armor-plated, black-windowed limousine. The car was formerly owned by Nicaraguan Dictator Anastasio Somoza, who was assassinated in 1956; its floor was stacked with submachine guns. To his followers, who were celebrating with marimba music and firecrackers, Arana pledged that when he takes over on July 1 from Méndez Montenegro* he would "put an end to the anarchy in which we have been living."
It remained to be seen whether Arana was also prepared to address himself to the urgent problems of a country where 64% of its 5,100,000 people are illiterate and most farm land is held by the rich. Perhaps the gravest problem of all is the continued existence of a caste system that separates the Indian majority (slightly over 50%) from the "Ladino" class, which consists of whites, mixed-bloods, and those Indians who have adopted the speech and manners of the Spanish ruling group. "In Guatemala, the Indian is only a part of the scenery, like the 33 volcanoes and Lake Atitlán," said a foreign observer in Guatemala City last week. "If any country ever needed a good humane reformist government with guts, this is it. No wonder leftists have been able to hang on fighting so long. The conditions for revolt will be here for a long time."
* Who, if he completes his four-year term and turns the office over to a duly elected successor, will be only the third President in Guatemala's 132-year history to do so.