A long-shot win for democracy in Guatemala: Analysis

ABC News' Matt Rivers sees at the recent elections in Guatemala as proof that democracy can still triumph in the face of repression.

As the U.S. kicks off its election year, there's a fresh reminder south of the border of the incredible power of democracy in the face of very long odds.

Bernardo Arévalo was sworn in overnight as the president of Guatemala after a shocking win in the presidential election several months ago.

From the moment he won the first round of voting in June, to winning the runoff and the presidency on August 20, elites ---many of them corrupt--long in power in Guatemala did just about everything possible to stop Arévalo from taking office. It has included threatening the prosecution and arrest of political allies to suspending his political party. His opponent in the presidential election even refused to acknowledge his victory, making unsubstantiated claims of fraud.

A constitutional court ordered last July that the election results be reviewed, temporarily siding with some of the entrenched political powers that were shocked by Bernardo Arévalo's surprise showing. Then, following a runoff vote in August that Arévalo won, a federal prosecutor nullified his victory in early December – a move that the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) condemned as an "attempted coup d'etat."