Guatemala enjoys a rising economy that would guarantee the well-being of all its citizens if its wealth were distributed equally. Instead, Guatemala has one of the most unequal distributions of wealth in the world. The newly elected Government,which will take office in January 2008, faces a myriad of challenges, but none will be more critical than addressing violent and organized crime,which is said to be increasingly infiltrating the political system itself. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Guatemala reports one of the highest intentional homicide rates among all countries for which reliable data are available. The UNDP reckons that violence costs Guatemala the equivalent of 7.3 percent of its GDP each year.
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