The president-elect has promised to crack down on corruption and break up monopolies, a welcome sign in a country gripped by a wealthy elite.
Jeff Abbott writes in The Progressive Magazine on the results of the election and the challenges that face Bernardo Arévalo from the agents of corruption.
Progressive social democrat César Bernardo Arévalo de León of the Movimiento Semilla (Seed Movement Party) won the runoff election for Guatemala’s presidency on August 20, a surprising result that few could have predicted before the first round of voting on June 25. Arévalo previously served in Guatemala’s congress, and his father was the country’s first democratically-elected president in the mid-1940s. His success represents a historic victory, especially in a country that has seen a recent rollback of democratic institutions.
“[The election of Arévalo] means there is social support for the fight against corruption,” Gabriela Carrera, a political science professor at the Guatemalan Rafael Landivar University, tells The Progressive.
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The 2023 electoral process was marred by irregularities and concerns, with many analysts and members of the international community expressing alarm around it. These concerns were amplified due to a campaign of revenge carried out by the far right against journalists, prosecutors, investigators, and judges who were involved in anti-corruption efforts that came out of investigations by the now defunct United Nations-backed International Commission Against Impunity (CICIG), which was forced to close in September 2019.
Movimiento Semilla’s success in the first round of voting led to further political interference. In early July, a coalition of far rightwing parties that had initially polled well in the election, filed a lawsuit to block the results in the country’s Constitutional Court.
While the court would later rule that the results could be certified by electoral authorities, the public prosecutor filed an order to suspend the Movimiento Semilla Party over accusations of falsifying signatures in its formation. These efforts were also blocked by the court, but the investigation continues.
The election put in contrast leaders who promote anti-corruption and anti-impunity efforts and those who have sought to maintain the status-quo: Arévalo and Movimiento Semilla represented the former, while Torres and the UNE Party ran on conservative family ideals and being tough on crime.
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei has congratulated Arévalo, and stated that he is ready to begin the transition. However, it will be challenging for the incoming administration to follow through on Arévalo’s anti-corruption policies, given that the UNE Party and the conservative VAMOS Party won a majority of seats in the nation’s congress.
Building coalitions with other smaller parties will be key to Arévalo’s success.
You can read the full piece, with links and photos, here, Bernardo Arévalo Victory Is a Turning Point for Guatemala.
Categories: Corruption, Guatemala, Human Rights, Impunity, Justice, Presidential Elections
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