• The runoff between Colom and Pérez Molina is this Sunday, November 4.
• Polls are indicating a dead-heat; although some show Pérez Molina to be slipping in the last hour. But to the fears of many human rights organizations he may decide to see to it that he is the victor, votes or not.
• The international community would like to see Colom triumph, because Pérez Molina brings too much dirty laundry to his candidacy.
• If Guatemala is to truly put its decades-old reputation as being the hemisphere's worst human rights violator behind it, and begin to deal with the pivotal issues of impunity and reconciliation, it would be wise to turn its back on Pérez Molina and vote for Colom.

Some food for thought, as noted by the BBC: "the 2006 murder rate (of 5,885) was higher than the average number of Guatemalans killed each year as a result of political violence from 1960 to 1996, when 200,000 died in a civil war between left-wing guerrillas and the military." This statistic hardly indicates that Guatemala's security situation can be readily ameliorated. Rather, these grim figures indicate that the breakdown in the security apparatus of the country continues 11 years after its weak and ineffective UN-brokered peace agreement came into effect. The divisive political atmosphere that currently permeates Guatemala is directly associated with the lawlessness and violence that currently exist in the country. On September 9, the two main candidates, Álvaro Colom and Otto Pérez Molina, received 27 percent and 25 percent of the vote, respectively; at the same time, as a result of political assassinations the body count reached almost 50, by conservative estimates, over the summer leading up to the elections. Although both national and international observers noted the relative calm, efficiency, and transparency of the elections, this does little to assuage mounting tension over the fact that a runoff is scheduled for November 4 with two candidates who are a hair-pin apart from one another in terms of their electoral prospects. Guatemala badly needs new leadership to rally around, not political divisiveness with a victorious candidate who may win only by the narrowest of margins or through attempted manipulation.