More than 9.3 million Guatemalans are called to the elections this Sunday to elect the president, in addition to the renewal of congressional and other local offices. Citizens can choose from 22 options on ballots for the presidency, with three polls showing the best chance of entering the second round, which takes place on August 20.
The frontrunners are Sandra Torres, the former first lady who moved from Social Democracy to a more conservative office and is seeking the presidency for a third time, and centre-right diplomat Edmond Mulet, who analysts say has the skills to do so to pool the useful voice of citizens fed up with Guatemala’s corruption and authoritarianism, and former conservative Congresswoman Zury Ríos, daughter of dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, who promises to repeat Bukele’s anti-gang policies. No candidate has won in the first round since the first democratic elections in 1985. And this year seems to be no exception.
These are the candidates running for President:
Sandra Torres’ third attempt at becoming president
Sandra Torres at a campaign rally in Guatemala City on June 23. JOHAN ORDONEZ (AFP)
Sandra Julieta Torres Casanova defines herself as a woman of the people who was born in Melchor de Mencos, a small town in the Petén department of northern Guatemala, on the border with Belize. She is known to the Guatemalans as First Lady during the reign of Álvaro Colom, who died that year. Those who have worked with her say that this 67-year-old communicator has a strong and demanding character. The candidate from the National Unity of Hope (UNE) gives few interviews to the press and, when she agrees, takes a confrontational stance at every interview. She dislikes criticism so much that in 2019 she accused six editors of elPeriódico of violence against women to prevent the magazine from publishing anything related to her.
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One of the biggest shadows of his career was the complaint about alleged concealment of electoral finance during the 2015 election campaign, when his main fundraiser was Gustavo Alejos, former private secretary to former President Álvaro Colom. An audio recording leaked to the press depicts a conversation between Torres and Alejos: he assures her that a developer has offered him $5 million, a case being handled by the Juan Francisco Sandoval prosecutor’s office. The conversation took place, but the candidate assures that she did not receive the money. For that case, Torres was jailed for four months before regaining his freedom under the guidance of Attorney General Consuelo Porras, the controversial head of the public ministry accused of obstructing the fight against corruption. The former prosecutor in the case, now in exile, accused his boss of “altering and misrepresenting” the allegations against Torres.
In the previous two elections, Torres reached the second round, losing to Jimmy Morales and Alejandro Giammattei. This has led to him being dubbed “the candidate who makes president” in political circles. This is because while it has a tough vote of nearly 1.5 million Guatemalans, as seen in previous elections, it also has a very strong opposition (41.4%), the highest among presidential candidates. And this vote to punish Torres favors whoever opposes her.
As Colom’s wife, Torres assumed power beyond the First Lady’s social figure, a post from which she promoted programs such as the Bolsa Solidaria, a food package for the poor that she promises to give back if she achieves the presidency now as an “improved.” stock market”. The memory of the relief supplies reaching areas that the Guatemalan state has traditionally forgotten brings great support to Torres on the ground.
“The vast majority of people in rural areas choose them to support social programs,” confirms Aura Cumes, a Mayan Kaqchikel researcher and teacher from the city of Chilmtenango. “In fact, a large part of the state budget has been allocated to it. And while it has reached the people, it has garnered votes in rural areas. This also happened in the urban realm, in the so-called outskirts.” However, Cumes acknowledges that the candidate also has a “strong anti-voice”, which he attributes in part to machismo and classism on the part of the non-indigenous urban population, who reject it what he represents.
In the book Rendición de Cuentas, former finance minister Juan Alberto Fuentes reports that during the Colom government it was Torres who wielded real and absolute power. The former first lady, who settled in the social democratic party UNE with which her husband presided over the country, has shown a right-wing ideological turn in her positions but avoids speaking out about her ideology. When Torres was asked in a recent interview how he identified himself, he downplayed his performances and concluded with the sentence: “My ideology is Guatemala.” In these elections he integrates a binomial with the evangelical ex-pastor Romeo Guerra.
Edmon Mulet, the conservative diplomat who can win useful votes
Edmond Mulet at a hotel in Guatemala City this Thursday during the campaign wrap-up. SANDRA SEBASTIAN (SANDRA SEBASTIAN)
Edmond Auguste Mulet Lesieur is a 72-year-old lawyer and diplomat who was born into a conservative family, a political school of thought he fosters in the centre-right Cabal party, which he founded in 2020, and in which former officials and militants from other countries are involved are represented parties participate. .
Mulet has devoted most of his life to the diplomatic service, but also has political experience, having served in two terms as an MP at the dawn of Guatemala’s democratic era between 1985 and 1993. Previously, in 1982, he co-founded the Partido Nacional Renovador and was elected deputy but was unable to take office due to the attack on the power of the dictator Efraín Ríos Montt.
This is the second time Mulet has run as a presidential candidate, which is encouraged because he came third in 2019 with the support of nearly half a million Guatemalans, 11% of the valid vote. On this occasion, Mulet is running as a vice presidential candidate along with political communications strategist Max Santa Cruz Anchissi. From his practice as a lawyer, Mulet raises questions about the irregular adoptions of children for families abroad in the 1980s, but asserts that he proved in court that the procedures were lawful and that he acted on humanitarian grounds.
Mulet’s diplomatic career began 30 years ago when he was appointed Guatemala’s ambassador to Washington, United States. In 2006, the diplomat was appointed by the United Nations to head a peace and stabilization mission in Haiti, the poorest country in Latin America. The appointment surprised this quiet man while he was pursuing one of his hobbies: kayaking on Lake Atitlán in the Guatemalan highlands. Later, after holding other positions in the international organization, he returned to the Caribbean country to lead the UN mission after the 2010 earthquake.
Mulet asserts that there was no genocide in Guatemala because the state did not persecute an “ethnic group” but that the war was all against all in a serious context of human rights violations. A court convicted dictator Efraín Ríos Montt of genocide against the Ixil people during the internal armed conflict, but the Constitutional Chamber reversed the verdict.
Mulet is critical of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), the defunct United Nations agency that has launched dozens of prosecutions into large-scale corruption cases in the country, saying it lacks an accountability system. On the other hand, he expressed concern about the persecution of opponents in Guatemala, such as the founder of elPeriódico, Jose Rubén Zamora, who was recently sentenced to six years in prison in a case criticized by human rights organizations for alleged money laundering and political persecution. This support for Zamora cost him a criminal complaint of obstruction of justice against Attorney Rafael Curruchiche, who is considered an anti-democracy actor by the US State Department.
According to political scientist Ricardo Sáenz, Mulet enjoys the support of some sections of the business elites associated with the government of Óscar Berger (2004-2008), as well as “chiefs of their regional power groups in different districts of Huehuetenango, Quiché”. and Alta Verapaz”. He also enjoys the support of a significant section of the urban middle classes, who see him as the only one capable of “putting a little stop to the authoritarian offensive and curbing widespread corruption in Guatemala.” It’s an opinion shared by several analysts in the country: that the Cabal candidate has the ability to garner the useful voice of Guatemalans who are fed up with the decline the country has taken in recent years.
Zury Ríos: The dictator’s daughter promises to take over Bukele’s anti-gang policies
Zury Ríos, at the campaign’s closing event on Thursday in Guatemala City. Moises Castillo (AP)
It is impossible to separate Zury Ríos Sosa from his father, the dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, because he followed in his footsteps in the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG) party, but also because he never missed an opportunity to validate his legacy , as he did At the end of his campaign, he recalled the message his father gave him before he died in 2018 at the age of 91, when he was charged with the genocide of indigenous Mayan Ixils during the country’s long civil war ( 1960-1996) said in court: “Zury: If one day God gives you an opportunity to serve Guatemala, do it with love, do it with service, do it with devotion, do it responsibly and do it with character and courage,” he assured her.
In previous elections, the Constitutional Chamber rejected the participation of the general’s daughter on the grounds that the constitution prohibits the putschists’ children from standing as candidates, as does their father. Aside from the legal argument, Ríos has said more than once that “the sins of the parents are not the sins of the children.”
The current court, made up of old acquaintances from conservative politics such as Roberto Molina Barreto, the former vice presidential candidate who accompanied her in her unsuccessful 2020 bid, and her attorney Luis Rosales, changed the criteria and endorsed the candidacy. In these elections, Ríos, a 55-year-old city woman, is running for the Valor-Unionista coalition, which brings together members of the conservative Unionista party such as former Secretary of State Sandra Jovel and Enrique Degenhart, former Secretary of the Interior during the Jimmy Morales government.
Ríos is a lawyer, has a degree in political science and has been an MP for four terms. They still remember her as a worker and her willingness to enter into alliances with those who thought differently politically than her conservative, Christian court and the traditional family advocated.
He promoted legal reforms, oversaw health issues, and participated in the passage of the Sexual Violence Act and the preparation of the Missing Children Transcript. In the current campaign, Ríos offered to repeat Nayib Bukele’s anti-gang policies and “civil death,” ie disqualification from holding public office, of those responsible for corruption.
As a vice-presidential candidate, Ríos will be accompanied by Héctor Cifuentes, one of the confidants of former President Álvaro Arzú, who is under investigation for allegedly evading public funds to finance political campaigns involving Byron Lima Oliva, the man he killed, Bishop Juan Gerardi , author of the memoirs documenting the horrors of the Civil War.
22 applications
Although these are the three candidates most likely to advance to the second round, there are a total of 22 couples present in this election, not including the three excluded by court decisions. All parties gaining more than 5% of the valid votes will receive a public sponsorship of $2 per vote.
Running candidates include Sammy Sosa, brother of former President Jimmy Morales, who ended CICIG’s mandate in Guatemala, and Luis Lam Padilla, former Guatemalan Ambassador to the United Nations (UN), who describes himself as “the advocate der got” called CICIG from Guatemala.” Both belong to the group of candidates with less than 2 percent voting intention.
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