Guatemala is a key case for evangelical politics in the Third World. A lot has been written about it, but much of what we would like to know is still not clear. It has probably the highest percentage of Protestants in Latin America and has produced two charismatic evangelical presidents.

About 60 per cent of the population are Indians, the highest percentage in the Americas. They belong to over twenty ethnic groups and speak as many different languages, which has impeded unified action. The country has a tiny elite of European descent (Spanish, Basque, German). A study of this elite by Casaus (1992) highlights adaptive strategies, now including involvement of oligarchic families in evangelical churches. This began in the 1970s through three elite families (Falla, Castillo and Bianchi), firstly in Verbo church and later in home-grown varieties. Casaus, writing during the government of evangelical Jorge Serrano, stresses how that government had facilitated the return to power of several oligarchic families, including evangelical ones (Alejos, Benfeldt, Zepeda Castillo, Bianchi). ‘The oligarchy has not been displaced from power, but has recycled itself, presenting a new image’, part of which is the evangelical link. ‘The return of these family networks to power takes place, in part, through the appeal of a new social sector, the evangelical pentecostal groups, which give them a new social base for matrimonial and inter-class alliances, with the objective of maintaining hegemony and preserving their power’ (ibid.: 297).