‘Guatemala is facing the most disputed elections since 1985,’ says expert

Guatemalans go to the polls to elect president, vice president, congressional deputies, municipal mayors and deputies to the Central American Parliament in an atmosphere of growing tension after a courtroom provisionally suspended the candidacy of businessman Carlos Pineda on Friday.

This candidate for the presidency for the Citizen Prosperity party, which leads the polls, was denounced for irregularities in the appointment of candidates. Three magistrates in an extraordinary session left Pineda’s participation “on hold” by accepting a challenge presented by leaders of the CAMBIO party, a political group to which the candidate had belonged.

“We are in a dictatorship. Removing me, who is not an ally of corruption, his sinister and macabre plan continues,” said Carlos Pineda after learning of the decision. Pineda has been the last candidate excluded from the electoral process by a court. Judicial authorities also rejected the candidacies of the indigenous activist Thelma Cabrera (left) and Roberto Arzú, son of the late former president Álvaro Arzú (1996-2000), who were projected as strong candidates for the presidency.

For the political scientist Renzo Rosal, these general elections are “the most unstable, the most weakened, the most questioned” since the beginning of the political transition in Guatemala, that is, the transition from the military regime to democracy in the mid-1980s. this professor at the Rafael Landívar University, there are numerous elements that show that these elections do not meet the minimum requirements of an authentic democratic process. The issue of the exclusion of these candidates is undoubtedly the main one.

But Renzo Rosal details other aspects, among others, the fact that there is no free competition between the different parties, positions and ideologies; the existence of restrictions that are not based on legal arguments, but of a political nature, such as allowing candidates who have legal violations to participate and excluding those who do not.

Two benefited candidates

For this political scientist, it would seem that there is a tendency, especially among the most traditional groups in economic terms, including the army, to “give enough impetus to the candidacy of the conservative Zury Ríos.” She is the daughter of the late ex-dictator Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-1983), prosecuted for the genocide of indigenous people during the civil war (1960-1996) who barely has 9.2% in the polls.

Another benefited politician, according to him, is Sandra Torres, who has been a candidate for the presidency on several occasions. In fact, she Torres was the First Lady of the Nation a few years ago, when she was the wife of Álvaro Colóm (president between 2008 and 2014). Those are the two candidacies that “are being sought at all costs, at all costs, to reach the second round, in particular that of Zury Rios,” says this professor in Guatemala City.

The European Union expressed its “concern” over the weekend over the exclusion of candidates for the June 25 presidential elections in Guatemala, and asked the authorities that any controversy be aired promptly and impartially. “The European Union takes note with concern of the repeated decisions on the exclusion of electoral candidacies,” the EU team stationed in Guatemala stated in a statement. The European entity called for the Guatemalan authorities to “guarantee that the registration of candidates is not obstructed.”