True to her role as a government minister, Liwy Grazioso believes one key explanation was declining trust in leadership. In a recent scientific article about the rise and fall of Tikal, she and her co-authors list factors including economic competition, increased warfare, lack of arable land and failure of revenue streams, as well as depletion of soil quality and droughts. All these strains on society made it hard to maintain essential infrastructure such as reservoirs. When I met Grazioso in the National Palace, she compared the flamboyant government building where we met to the great pyramids of Tikal. "This is a public building and it's very beautiful. But to keep it, you need to use government money. When a crisis or a war is coming, who's going to care? If the palace crumbles, who will pay attention? You will try to provide food for your family."
Sitting in the current seat of power, Grazioso turned the argument to the present. She said: "It is the same that happens now, if we are not careful. Governments need to earn the trust of their taxpayers."…
