What does Donald Trump have in common with Efrain Rios Montt?

Dinorah Azpuru has a post at The Monkey Cage on To understand Donald Trump’s law-and-order appeal, look south of the border. How do Trump supporters compare to those of Rios Montt, Portillo, and Perez Molina?

Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican Convention focused on fear as the cornerstone of his appeal to voters. That speech, and many of Trump’s speeches, evoke the caudillos, or strongmen, who have been a staple of Latin American politics for centuries. The length of Trump’s acceptance speech, the yelling, the appeals to nationalism, and in particular the personalist tone of his message (“I alone can fix it”), parallel the speeches of populists such as Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and Rafael Correa in Ecuador.

Indeed, Trump’s populist style has been compared to that of those leftist leaders on several occasions. But Trump’s law-and-order approach to campaigning is also reminiscent of right-wing leaders such as Alberto Fujimori in Peru and Efraín Ríos Montt in Guatemala.

Two recent Guatemalan elections may help shed light on Trump’s appeal. While some Latin American leaders have focused on economic populism and anti-establishment rhetoric, leaders in Guatemala have, like Trump, emphasized law and order.

And to think that Manuel Baldizon was the soft on crime candidate in 2011. He only called for the reinstatement of the death penalty and televised executions.