Alvaro Colom vs William Tolbert

Álvaro Colom won the 2007 Guatemalan presidential election as candidate of the National Unity of Hope party. He defeated Otto Pérez Molina in a runoff, becoming president from 2008 to 2012.

Colom launched the 'Mi Familia Progresa' conditional cash transfer program, providing financial aid to poor families contingent on children's school attendance and health checkups. The program aimed to reduce poverty and improve human development indicators.

Lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg was assassinated; a posthumous video accused Colom of ordering the murder. The case sparked political crisis, but a UN investigation later concluded Rosenberg had orchestrated his own death to frame Colom.

Tolbert became President of Liberia on July 23, 1971, after the death of William Tubman. He continued Tubman's policies of economic openness and pro-Western alignment but faced growing economic inequality and political unrest.

In April 1979, Tolbert's government proposed a price increase for rice, a staple food. This sparked massive protests and riots in Monrovia, resulting in dozens of deaths. The government was forced to reverse the price hike, but the crisis weakened Tolbert's authority.

On April 12, 1980, Tolbert was assassinated during a coup led by Master Sergeant Samuel Doe. Doe's soldiers stormed the presidential mansion, killing Tolbert and several of his aides. The coup ended 133 years of Americo-Liberian rule and plunged Liberia into decades of instability.