Today's Political Landscape in Guatemala
By Kevin Frederick
A great roar of unified dissent has erupted in Guatemala this year as protesters have taken to the streets
by the tens of thousands in cities across Guatemala. Protesters old and young, students and campesinos,
homemakers and wage earners, religious leaders and business leaders are demanding the end of high
level political corruption and calling for a representative government that will bring order to the nation and
accountability to its government. Since April and the resignation of Vice President Roxana Baldeti, many
other high level officials have been charged with corruption and embezzlement of millions of dollars of
government monies which had been designated for social programming and relief to the nation’s
poor. Baldetti was arrested Aug. 21.
As of early August 70 people have been captured and arrested for links to corruption. Investigative
evidence traces back to President Otto Pérez Molina himself. Protesters have demanded that he step
down from his post. However the President remains defiant and has announced repeatedly that he will
not cede to pressure. On Aug. 21, prosecutors have asked the Supreme Court for approval to impeach
Pérez Molina.
Photo from Archives/Soy502.
In place of Vice President Baldeti, Congress has appointed two months ago, Alejandro Maldonado.
Maldonado a high level judge in Guatemala, was one of three judges on a five panel Constitutional Court
who overturned a World Court hearing and conviction of Rios Montt’s guilty verdict and its accompanying
eighty year sentence, just 10 days after he was convicted of war crimes for the brutal 1980’s war against
the indigenous Mayan people of Guatemala. Maldonado was deeply influential in the creation of the
annulment. Added to this was the announcement that the daughter of Rios Montt, Zury Rios, has officially
registered as a candidate for President in the September elections this year to succeed Molina after his
term expires. Recent evidence reveals that illegal monies from drug trafficking and corruption are the
primary sources of funding for the current political parties election campaigns.
President Pérez Molina himself is an alleged war criminal for his role as an intellectual and material
author of war crimes during the worst years of Rios Montt’s reign of power in the 1980’s. According to
reports from Guatemalan news sources, Pérez Molina is personally responsible for more than 700
murders throughout the country during the 1980’s.
The threads of United States intervention in support of the oppressors can be traced not only back to the
1980’s but also are identified in supportive and unchallenging US political policies today. In response to
these travesties of justice the people of Guatemala in an unprecedented unified and growing response
are demanding deep and systemic change.
As a member of the board of CEDEPCA USA, these political factors concern me greatly and the unified
response of the people of Guatemala gives real cause for hope. However knowing the militarized
oppression that Pérez Molina supported in the 1980’s, I remain concerned that a return to military
repression may be in the future of the people of Guatemala if Pérez Molina and his government officials
feel tightly pressed into a corner. However some insiders believe that the current reaction is such an
unprecedented universal response that this time the government cannot dare respond with violence.
What all this means is that this is a time of great turmoil and change for the people of Guatemala, God’s
justice is on the side of the people and I invite your prayers and attention to the upcoming elections in
September, and possible run-off in October, and the transition to new leadership that will emerge from it.
Let’s pray that it will bring a new era of justice to the people of Guatemala.